Unadopted Roads: Research

(asked on 23rd March 2026) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, to list the (a) individuals and (b) organisations that her Department is consulting as part of its research to better understand the adoption process under the Highways Act 1980 and how it might be improved in the future.


Answered by
Simon Lightwood Portrait
Simon Lightwood
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 30th March 2026

Ipsos UK has been commissioned by the Department for Transport to conduct research into the operation of sections 37 and 38 of the Highways Act 1980 and to assess whether the current road adoption system remains fit for purpose. As part of this work, Ipsos are engaging a range of organisations, including house builders of varying sizes, local highway and planning authorities, councillors, and residents.

Residents have been sampled from areas including Cambridge, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Northumberland, Barnsley, Cheshire East, Gloucestershire and Milton Keynes. Interviews have also been conducted with several local authorities including Warwickshire, Barnsley, Cambridge, Cheshire East, Leicestershire, Kent and Shropshire.

Ipsos UK was commissioned to deliver anonymous qualitative interviews. To honour the confidentiality promised to participants, Ipsos has not shared the detailed list of individual housebuilders with the Department, and therefore DfT does not hold this information.

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