RSTA News
The National Audit Office has warned that road maintenance budget cuts will cost more than they will save. The warning is part of the NAO report on the Department for Transport’s (DfT) budget cuts following the 2010 spending review that set a transport budget 15 per cent lower in 2014-15 compared with 2010-11.
All areas of spending are affected with the Highways Agency seeing the largest reduction with budget reductions of £1.23 billion being made to national and local road maintenance, this the NAO points out “risks deterioration in road quality and higher long-term costs to the Department or local authorities”. Indeed, the review adds that there is risk that the budget reductions in maintenance may not be financially sustainable.
“With reducing benefits the DfT and local authorities need to understand and emphasise the benefits of properly funded long-term maintenance. This offers far better value than short-term patch-and-mend,” said Howard Robinson, chief executive of the Roads Surface Treatments Association (RSTA). He pointed out that it costs only £2 m2 to surface dress and maintain a road but costs £75 m2 to repair potholes.
In addition to costing more to repair, poorly maintained roads cost highways authorities millions of pounds in compensation claims from motorists whose vehicles are damaged by potholes. It is estimated that highway authorities paid out over £53 million last year in insurance compensation claims. “Even that significant figure is dwarfed by the £20 billion that the crumbling road network is estimated to cost the national economy,” said Robinson. He continued: “Cutting funding on road maintenance is a false economy and will result in significantly increased future costs for the national and local highway authorities.”
