Local authorities are facing fresh changes to funding allocations, following the Government’s pledge to divert it to ‘areas of greatest need’ and regional bodies’ suggestion that the cash contributes to motorway or rail schemes.
The pre-Budget report surprised senior county officials by stating that the Department for Transport would ‘assess how best to provide transport funding to local authorities so that it continues to be targeted to areas of greatest need’.
A formula for deciding councils’ integrated transport and maintenance allocations, to reflect the extent to which they faced congestion, accessibility, safety and pollution problems, was introduced by the DfT in 2006.
Matthew Lugg, chair of the County Surveyors’ Society engineering committee, said that while the formula ‘is a crude way of determining local need’ – the carriageway indicators only considered surface condition – ‘it’s better than nothing’.
‘If there’s a case for allocating highways maintenance funding in a way that better reflects need it is through an asset management approach,’ he added.
The regional funding allocation process will, from 2011/12, be able to review councils’ integrated transport and maintenance allocations. South East England Regional Assembly director of development, Martin Tugwell, said this ‘presents an opportunity to better align this funding with economic development and growth objectives’.
In future years, up to 2019, the regional transport board and regional development agency would also consider the merits of investing regional funding in Highways Agency or Network Rail schemes, he said. Tugwell defended such a move from concerns that it would squeeze local budgets. However, Graeme Fitton, chair of the CSS transportation committee, warned against regions ‘tinkering,’ and said that some regional bodies had agreed to simply passport councils’ previously agreed allocations.
Register now for full access
Register just once to get unrestricted, real-time coverage of the issues and challenges facing UK transport and highways engineers.
Full website content includes the latest news, exclusive commentary from leading industry figures and detailed topical analysis of the highways, transportation, environment and place-shaping sectors.
Use the link below to register your details for full, free access.
Already a registered? Login
