Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) collating and (b) publishing how much Vehicle Excise Duty is collected by local authority area.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Information on how much Vehicle Excise Duty is collected by local authority area, is not held. Significant technical changes would be needed to capture and maintain such data and there are no plans to do so.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to upgrade rail transport provision to Gatwick Airport to facilitate the airport expansion.
Answered by Mike Kane
The Secretary of State’s letter of 27 February 2025 set out her initial views and that she was ‘minded to approve’ but has not yet taken a final decision on Gatwick Airport’s planning application. As this is live planning application that is yet to be decided, unfortunately I cannot comment in detail at this time.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has had discussions with Filey Town Council on the return of the Filey Town Centre Bus.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The government believes that local authorities, working with bus operators, are best placed to determine and design local bus networks in their area, and the government does not intervene in local decisions regarding individual bus routes or services.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans she has to (a) review and (b) increase the maximum level of parking fines that can be issued by councils outside London.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
A number of parking sector stakeholders conducted research recently into this issue. It has been shared with the Department and officials will be reviewing the research and its findings in due course, and that will then inform decisions about next steps.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2025 to Question 38040 on Roads: Hampshire, what the net increase in local authority road maintenance funding is in monetary cash terms in 2025-26 relative to the aggregation of the (a) HS2, (b) Network North and (c) other funding streams given to local authorities in 2024-25.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
In 2024/25, local highway authorities received a total of £1,067 million of capital funding for local highway maintenance from various funding streams including the Highways Maintenance Block “needs” element, Highways Maintenance Block “incentive” element, potholes funding, and the £150 million Network North funding uplift (which came from redirected HS2 funding).
In 2025/26, the Government is providing £1,567 million of capital funding for local highway maintenance, meaning that the net increase in cash terms is £500 million. Further detail is provided on page 94 of the Budget 2024 document, and the details of allocations to local highway authorities in each year are available on gov.uk.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the Access for All funding allocated to Thirsk Station has been placed on hold.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The feasibility work for Thirsk station is underway and we expect all 50 of the feasibility studies announced last year to be complete in the spring. We expect to be able to confirm which stations will move forward over the summer. The Access for All programme continues to be heavily oversubscribed.
We remain committed to improving the accessibility of the railway and recognise the valuable social and economic benefits this brings to communities.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much local highway authorities in England received from the (a) pothole fund, (b) highways maintenance block needs, (b) highways maintenance block incentive, (d) integrated transport block, (e) Maintenance funding uplift from HS2 Euston savings, (f) Network North highways maintenance funding and (g) other repurposed HS2 funding for potholes and road maintenance in the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
In 2024/25, the Department provided a total of £1,067 million to local highway authorities in England under the pothole fund and highways maintenance block (needs and incentive elements). Nominally, this broke down into approximately £407 million from the potholes fund, £407 million from the highway maintenance block “needs” element, £102 million from the highway maintenance block “incentive” element and £150 million from the Network North plan. In practice, these funding streams now serve the same purpose and are used interchangeably by local highway authorities: the Department will formally consolidate them into a single payment from 2025/26 onwards.
The £150 million funding uplift from the previous Government’s Network North plan was divided up among all CRSTS recipients and local highway authorities in England. Individual authority by authority allocations are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/highways-maintenance-funding-allocations.
The Department also paid a total of £170 million of Integrated Transport Block (ITB) funding to local highway authorities in 2024/25, with the details available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/highways-maintenance-funding-allocations/highways-maintenance-and-itb-funding-formula-allocations-2022-to-2025 .
None of the above figures include the £208 million or so of highway maintenance funding per annum, or the £90 million or so of ITB funding per annum, that has been consolidated into the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) that are paid to some Mayoral Combined Authority areas.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much local highway authorities in England will receive in 2025-26 from the (a) pothole fund, (b) highways maintenance block needs, (c) highways maintenance block incentive, (d) integrated transport block, (e) Maintenance funding uplift from HS2 Euston savings, (f) Network North highways maintenance funding and (g) other repurposed HS2 funding for potholes and road maintenance.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
During 2025/26, the Department will provide a total of £1,567 million to local highway authorities in England under a new single, consolidated highway maintenance capital grant. This consolidates into one single funding stream the previous pothole fund, highway maintenance block (needs and incentive elements) and earlier Network North funding uplift, as well as the £500 million funding uplift announced in the Chancellor’s October 2024 Budget. The funding allocations to individual authorities are all on gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/highways-maintenance-funding-allocations/highways-maintenance-block-formula-allocations-2025-to-2026.
The Department will also provide £170 million of Integrated Transport Block (ITB) funding to local highway authorities in 2025/26. Allocations to individual authorities are published on gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/integrated-transport-block-allocations.
None of the above figures include the £208 million or so of highway maintenance funding per annum, or the £90 million or so of ITB funding per annum, that has been consolidated into the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) that are paid to some Mayoral Combined Authority areas.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2025 to Question 36099 on Housing: Parking, whether local authorities may recover costs of dropping a kerb greater than the actual cost of the (a) works and (b) administration.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Section 184 of the Highways Act 1980 provides that local authorities may recover the expenses reasonably incurred by them in carrying out works to create a dropped kerb.
Local authorities are responsible for managing and maintaining the roads in their area and must themselves make any decision on dropped kerbs.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2025 to Question 38041 on Roads: Repairs and Maintenance, whether the complete resurfacing of an existing road is classed as capital or revenue expenditure.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
It is up to local highway authorities’ Section 151 officers to determine what types of highway maintenance expenditure can legitimately be classed as capital and what as revenue expenditure, following the advice provided by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and others. There are some grey areas, but the complete resurfacing of an existing highway by a local highway authority will almost always be classed as capital expenditure. This is because it would count as improving a council-owned asset and making it last longer.