AIA calls for significant boost to local road funding

Asphalt Industry Alliance calling for an additional £1.5 billion per year to improve road conditions  

THE Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) says the funds, to be reallocated from existing fuel duty, will need to be made available for the next decade. Injecting a further £1.5 billion a year into road maintenance would allow council highways teams to halt the ongoing decline of the network and bring local roads up to target conditions.

‘Our local roads have been underfunded for many years and the result is that more than 24,000 miles of the network is classed as poor and may need to be repaired in the next 12 months,’ said Rick Green, chairman of the AIA.

‘There have been calls for an additional 2p per litre from existing fuel duty to be reinvested in local road maintenance, which would generate an additional £1 billion per year, but we don’t think this goes far enough. 

‘In order to tackle the scale of the problem we believe that 3p per litre from fuel duty needs to be redirected. This would allow the annual £555.7 million shortfall in England and Wales reported in our Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance [ALARM] survey to be addressed and provide £1 billion to tackle the legacy of underfunding.’

Mr Green continued: ‘Sustained over 10 years, this will allow the local road network to be brought back to a standard fit for the 21st century, where it can effectively support communities and drive economic growth; a standard which could then be effectively maintained going forward.’