Cuts threaten new roads

As cuts in public spending are announced, it has become clear that spending on new roads is one of the areas that is likely to suffer, the Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has indicated. It is expected that the Department of Transport will have its budget cut by between 25 and 40%, meaning that there will be little money left for new roads. Mr Hammond has indicated that spending on roads will have to concentrate on maintaining existing roads, rather than on building new ones. It is unlikely that any major new infrastructure projects will be taking place in the current climate.

Mr Hammond emphasised that he considered maintenance to be important, and that while the government will have to put road-building projects on hold, there would be an effort made to ensure that pot-holes and other potential safety hazards were dealt with. It is not yet clear which road building and improvement projects will be cut. This is likely to be finalised during the government’s October spending review. The previous government had put aside £6 billion for improvements to major roads, and a further £3 billion for local roads.

Despite government assurances on safety, concerns have been raised that public safety may be compromised by the cuts. Road safety charity Brake emphasised that there have already been cuts of £40 million in safety grants, and that further cuts in the roads budget could put the public at risk. Safety charity RoSPA emphasised that the majority of Britain’s roads already fail to meet European safety standards, and fear that cuts could worsen the situation.

The Labour government had embarked on a scheme of allowing cars to use motorway hard shoulders to reduce overcrowding. Even these schemes may be under threat, as spending is required before this can be done safely. While such cuts save money in the short term, there is a case to be made that spending on transport infrastructure delivers a long term benefit to the economy, which outweighs the initial spending. However, with cuts taking place in government services across the board, and railways as well as roads likely to be badly hit, it is unlikely that road spending will be given any special treatment by the government.

For the vehicle tracking and fleet management industry, any reduction in spending that might cause overcrowding on the roads and poorer road safety has the potential to be detrimental, as without good roads it may be difficult to gain new business. However, until the details of cuts are known in October, final judgement on the implications cannot be made.

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