Authorities reel as Whitehall cuts capital funding

11 January 2007

Dozens of local highway authorities were dismayed and angry to learn that the Government had cut their capital funding for roads maintenance for 2007/08 – in most cases, significantly.
Thirty-four councils or conurbations received less formula funding for highways repairs than the previous year. In more than half of cases, their allocation had been slashed by 10% or more, and 11 of those received one-fifth less.
Last December, almost every council had received an increase, and no authority got less than 1% of what they had received the previous year.
Highways officials were left fuming by the news, and by the fact that there were few details forthcoming on the reasons for the cuts. Some received less than they had been told to expect in the five-year ‘planning guidelines’, and might have to revisit their local transport plan targets.
But, conversely, 48 councils or conurbations will gain an increase, 10 of which will get at least 20% more than for 2006/07, with Kent County Council receiving the single-biggest hike overall of £4.2M.
The explanation for why there were such big winners and losers this year appeared to be the allocation of official capital funding for the first time for ageing streetlights: £32M was devoted to this, based on the numbers of 40-year-old columns in each council’s stock.
The fact that the overall pot only increased by £11M, to £683M, and that a larger-than-usual proportion went on so-called exceptional major maintenance schemes – £49M, compared with last year’s £51M – contributed to the size of the cuts.
Leicestershire County Council had more than £2M shaved off its formula funding – a 30% cut. Leicestershire environment director, Matthew Lugg, said: ‘Getting figures significantly lower than we were expecting is not good for managing the business. Narrowly focusing investment on where the biggest problems area penalises higher-performers.’
The £1.5M cut for Bedfordshire (24%) – whose LTP performance was rated as ‘good’ – left Cllr Tom Wootton, executive member for highways, bewildered. ‘I fail to understand how the Government can praise Bedfordshire for the quality of our road repairs and how we deal with the maintenance backlog, and then cut our repairs funding.’
The biggest winners were not happy either. Kent did not know ‘how much of our £25M we will be taking up,’ given the fact that much was in the form of unsupported borrowing. And Tony Ciaburro, Essex’s head of highways and transportation, while welcoming the county’s £3M extra, which he assumed was for streetlighting, said the county’s real maintenance needs were still not being met. ‘We’ve got new towns where every single column will soon need replacement.’

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Authorities reel as Whitehall cuts capital funding

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