Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many miles of road Highways England manages in each county of England.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
National Highways is responsible for managing England’s strategic road network, which is made up of over 4,500 miles of centrally managed motorway and main A-roads. The latest available data on road length of centrally managed motorways and A-roads broken down by local authority can be found on GOV.UK (Table RDL0102): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/road-length-statistics-rdl.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much (a) Network North and (b) repurposed High Speed 2 funding was given to local highways authorities in 2024-25; and whether she plans to continue that funding in 2025-26.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In 2024/25 the previous Government allocated £150 million of additional highway maintenance funding to local highway authorities as part of its Network North plan, all of which was repurposed High Speed 2 funding. This Government has allocated £500 million of additional highway maintenance funding to local highway authorities for 2025/26. Funding beyond 2025/26 is a matter for the forthcoming Spending Review.
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 3 March 2025 to Question 33369 on Roads: Hampshire, whether the change to local highways allocations for 2025-26 (a) is in addition to or (b) replaces the funding for highways from (i) Network North and (ii) repurposed HS2 funding announced on 4 October 2023.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The highway maintenance funding uplift of £500 million for 2025/26, which was announced by the Chancellor in October 2024, comes on top of the increase of £150 million in 2024/25 that was announced by the previous Government as part of the Network North plan. The 2024 Budget document makes clear that the £150 million Network North funding increase has, in effect, become part of the highway maintenance funding baseline. The Government will say more on future years’ funding after the Spending Review.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether repairing potholes is (a) revenue and (b) capital expenditure for local authorities.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Department for Transport provides local highway authorities with capital funding for local highway maintenance. Local authorities receive revenue funding from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government through the Local Government Finance Settlement.
Capital funded highway maintenance activities are typically structural in nature and may include planned reactive repairs, such as permanent small-scale repairs to roads and pavements. However, capital funding cannot be used to fund the operating costs of a service, or for recurring expenditure such as grass-cutting or other cyclical maintenance activities, or for temporary short-term patching of potholes.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what statistics her Department holds on the (a) number of potholes repaired and (b) area of roads resurfaced each year.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Department does not collect data on the number of potholes treated or miles of road resurfaced in each local authority area each year, but instead collects information from local highway authorities on the overall condition of their roads. This is published annually, together with other information such as local authority expenditure on highway maintenance, on gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/road-condition-statistics-data-tables-rdc.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what guidance her Department has issued to local authorities on the practice of charging (a) to allow householders to park within the curtilage of their property without a formally approved dropped kerb and (b) making highways works to drop a kerb; and whether councils are able to generate a profit from such charges.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Department has issued no guidance to local authorities on these matters. Section 184 of the Highways Act 1980 makes clear that local authorities may recover costs of carrying out works to create a dropped kerb, once complete.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what guidance her Department has issued to local authorities on whether a road in a new build development should be adopted by a local authority.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Any decision on whether or not to adopt roads of this sort is a matter for the local highway authority. The Department has published guidance on gov.uk on Highways Adoption: The Adoption of Roads into the Public Highway, which was last updated in August 2022. It sets out the process by which new and existing roads can be adopted by highway authorities so that they become maintainable at public expense.
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 13 February 2025 to Question 29617 on Heathrow Airport, whether she plans to have a vote in Parliament on the revised Airports National Policy Statement.
Answered by Mike Kane
The Government has invited proposals for a third runway at Heathrow to be brought forward by the summer. Once proposals have been received, the government will review the Airports National Policy Statement in line with the requirements of the Planning Act 2008. When conducting the review, the Secretary of State will comply with the consultation, publicity and parliamentary requirements of the Planning Act 2008.
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 27 January 2025 to Question 27600 on Electric Vehicles: Charging Points, what steps her Department has taken to introduce a unified consent regime for all street charging point (a) consents and (b) permits since 5 July 2024.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government is committed to accelerating the roll-out of charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an electric vehicle. Several changes have been made over time to simplify and accelerate the installation of public chargepoints, such as local authorities being able to appoint operators to install chargepoints on-street without applying for planning permission.
In December, the Government announced that it will legislate to allow chargepoint operators access to street works permits and Street Manager, which is the DfT’s online service for planning and managing works in use by every authority and utility company in England. This will remove the need for them to obtain costly and time-consuming licences. The Government also confirmed further changes to permitted development rights, cutting costs and required permissions for chargepoint installation. These changes will speed up public and private EV chargepoint deployment in England, ensuring a rapidly expanding and available network.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps is her Department taking to help reopen Hammersmith Bridge to vehicular traffic; and what responsibilities (a) central government, (b) Transport for London and (c) the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham have to finance the repairs.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
My Department is continuing to work productively with both the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (LBHF) and Transport for London (TfL) to explore possible next steps for the Hammersmith Bridge restoration project.
As the asset owner, LBHF is ultimately responsible for the repair and maintenance of Hammersmith Bridge. Given the challenging fiscal environment, the Department is clear that any further funding consideration is contingent upon an agreed engineering solution and cost sharing approach between partners.