PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Roadworks: Journey Times - 30 October 2024 (Commons/Westminster Hall)

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. In the previous Parliament, I introduced a ten-minute rule Bill about the regulation of roadworks, which I am reintroducing next week. I am honoured to say my hon. Friend has agreed to be a sponsor, as has the Opposition spokesman, the hon. Member for Mid Buckinghamshire (Greg Smith). Does my hon. Friend agree that a key element is the handing-out of permits by highway authorities, which I am trying to tighten up on? If we could tighten that up, we could help to prevent many of the overruns that my hon. Friend so eloquently described.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Sir Roger, and I thank the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Lewis Cocking) for securing this important debate.

In this debate, I want to highlight the fact that cars are not the only vehicles affected by roadworks. Bus services are just as severely impacted, if not more so. Bus networks and timetables are highly sensitive to disruption. They can rarely change routes to avoid the impact of roadworks. A point of disruption that might result in a five-minute delay for a car will have a repeated and accumulating effect on a bus service over the course of a day, adding mounting disruption each time the bus service runs its route, until the whole timetable can just fall apart, along with the plans of the bus passengers.

Working to a timetable makes it extremely challenging for service users to adjust their journey plans when things happen in this way. Fixed capacities mean that even if people try to catch an earlier bus, they may well find that it is full. Delays on bus routes can have knock-on effects for transfers to other services or modes of transport, adding even more chaos and frustration to people’s journeys.

To give a recent example that affected my constituents in Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme, one route experienced a 5% drop in service use due to roadworks, even though two additional buses had been added to alleviate the disruption. Although a 5% drop might seem minor, over the course of just a few weeks it translates to hundreds and potentially thousands of missed journeys, and the additional cost of putting on extra buses, combined with the loss in the number of fares, can have an impact on the funding of other services.

In another case, a bus service was subject to a 10% reduction in punctuality for weeks while roadworks persisted. I have heard of constituents who now walk an hour each day to use their nearest train station, rather than stopping for the bus right outside their door because they fear delays, cancellations and not getting to their appointments on time. Although it may be an option for some people to walk three miles a day there and back, many people, particularly the elderly, the disabled and those with small children, simply cannot add a three-mile trek to their journey.

We all know the frustration of sitting in traffic and the stress of watching the clock tick by as we get closer and closer to the start-time for work, knowing that we are going to be late. There is not much that can make sitting there in that situation more pleasant and allow people some comfort, but there is the thought that at least once the works are done, they are done. The problem is that such hope is quickly dashed, because a month later the same road is dug up again, as the hon. Member for Broxbourne has said.

Roads need to be repaired; no one disputes that. Utility companies need to lay new pipes and gain access to their infrastructure; no one disputes that. However, when a road is resurfaced one month and then dug up again two months later for the installation of new cables, and new pipes go in a few months after that, it is easy to see why people become frustrated. What is hugely important is how we get greater co-ordination between local authorities and utility companies. What we all want to see is frequent and reliable bus travel, so let us work together to make that happen for my constituents in Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme and for people right across our country.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Sir Roger, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne (Lewis Cocking) on securing this very important debate.

Tonight, drivers in my constituency of Dumfries and Galloway will set what I think is a record. At the stroke of 8 pm, traffic cones will close the A75 road to motorists and force them to undertake a 96-mile—yes, 96-mile—diversion. That must surely be among the longest diversions ever forced on drivers. The overnight closure between Newtown Stewart and Castle Douglas is not a one-off; it is just the latest in a round of closures that will continue into November. A journey that normally takes 40 minutes will become a two and a half hour epic.

Although transport is devolved to the Scottish Parliament, I raise this issue in this Chamber because the A75, which is grandly titled the “Euro route” although it is often more akin to a cart-track, has significance for every one of our constituents. Sir Peter Hendy’s Union connectivity review identified the A75 as the key link between Northern Ireland, Scotland and England, as it serves the busy ferry port of Cairnryan in my constituency. It is of UK-wide importance. Estimates vary, but perhaps as much as 60% of Northern Ireland’s trade grinds along that road. Maintenance, as we have heard, is welcome and vital, but diversions such as the one I mentioned treat the public with contempt. Surely we can do better.

The other road that services the port of Cairnryan is the A77. It too could be a record breaker, for it had, according to the A77 action group, three closures for road accidents and 161 for works—and that is only between January and September of this year. It was shut on Monday and again on Tuesday; once for a lorry on fire and once for a lorry off the road. Further, the A77 still hangs by a thread in Glen App, where literally years of roadworks have failed to cure a landslip risk.

Scotland’s First Minister has agreed to visit Galloway to discuss roads from hell, which are screaming out for investment beyond mere patch-ups, and the £5 million in today’s Budget for the A75 is a start. I have invited the Secretary of State for Scotland to drive the A75 and the A77 too. He says his busy schedule will not allow it, but might someone from the Department for Transport make time to see how awful those unenviable record-breaking roads are? We hear boasts that Labour has reset relations with the SNP, so perhaps they could share a car with the First Minister.

Finally, I want to make an early plea that should anyone suggest a traffic cone tsar, we should instead call the position the cone arranger.

That was terrible.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger, and thank you for allowing me to speak. I congratulate the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Lewis Cocking) on securing this important debate.

This is a matter of a disturbing level of cross-Bench consensus, I fear, because we are all largely saying the same thing. In my constituency of Rossendale and Darwen, single trunk roads serve the vast majority of the constituency and residents and businesses are delayed and constrained daily by the incessant roadworks they face, to the extent that several of the major employers in the valley, on which we are entirely reliant, are threatening to leave or considering leaving the area because of the costs to their business that the relentless roadworks impose.

The situation is a constraint on growth and on people’s everyday lives. It would be fair to say that there is a complete consensus that something must change, yet we are constrained by the previous legislation—I think the last Act was the Traffic Management Act 2004—and it limits what we can do. There is a limit on the amount that can be charged as fixed-penalty notices for street works that overrun or do not follow their permits and a limit on the approach to lane rental schemes to 5% of a given local authority’s road network, but those are relatively straightforward things to change. I hope that, with this level of cross-Bench consensus, the Government’s imperative on growth and the recognition of the impact on everyday lives, we can make what I hope will be relatively straightforward changes and give our communities and our businesses the boost they need for roadworks that are properly managed and regulated, with proper and effective penalties for overruns that are, in many cases, inexcusable.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. May I congratulate the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Lewis Cocking) on setting the scene so well? I will not delay the House very long, but I want to make a contribution from Northern Ireland, highlighting some points and then putting forward a couple of solutions.

I live in a rural community and the only way of getting to where we want to be on a regular basis is to jump in the car and drive up the road. The Ards peninsula, where I live, has a road going down one side and up the other and one going through the middle, so accessibility to certain roads means that if one closes, we have severe problems. I am used to the journey into town being a wee bit longer than I would like it to be. To give one example, the roadworks in Belfast, which have been there for some time, have led to people missing flights, being late for GP appointments, late for work and even missing NHS operations in the Ulster hospital. It is hard to comprehend how that can happen. Even the buses cannot get through, as the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Lewis Cocking) mentioned earlier. Even the fast buses cannot get along the road.

To give some perspective of where we are in Northern Ireland, I see problems for small businesses, particularly when roads are habitually closed. One in particular is McClements’ garage on the Portaferry Road, Newtownards. The roads service cannot do anything about having to close the road. Insurance means that vehicles cannot travel up and down the road during major works, which means that the business closes and the garage owner has lost business over a period of maybe eight to 10 weeks. That has an impact on him because he does not get the traffic and passing trade. Can more be done to help businesses that are directly impacted by such works?

We need better co-ordination. Let me give two examples: Mill Street in Newtownards and Loughries Road. This was a few years ago, to be fair. Northern Ireland Water came and dug the road up, then filled it in. The gas guys came along, dug the road up and filled it in. Then the third one, British Telecom, came along. It dug the road up as well—in the very same place, the same hole in the ground. The three utilities could have been better co-ordinated and could have done it better together. We need better co-ordination; that is No. 1.

I want to give a second solution, if I can. I know that the roads service in Northern Ireland has done this. The Sydenham bypass carries a vast number of vehicles—thousands every day. It is a major thoroughfare, bringing people up from the Ards peninsula and Bangor right into Belfast, so that road is really important. The roads service came up with a solution, which was to do the work at the weekend. That meant that when people were going to work from Monday to Friday, the roads were available, but on Saturday and Sunday they were not.

How did we do it better? We asked the roads service to work more at the weekends. I understand that it is difficult in times of financial stringency, but none the less it is not impossible for work to be done at nighttime when fewer people are on the roads and there is less impact. So, there are two solutions to consider, including doing the roadworks in the evenings and at weekends, as has been done in Northern Ireland. It is successful.

I have one more quick point. Whenever the roads are closed, there really has to be a better way of letting vehicle owners and those who are travelling on the road know exactly what is going on.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I thank the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Lewis Cocking) for securing this important debate. I know from my own inbox and those of my colleagues that this impacts many of our constituents’ lives, work and businesses. Just this weekend in my own constituency, there has been large-scale disruption from roadworks. On the A3, which runs through Wimbledon, roadworks caused huge congestion not just in south-west London but across much of Surrey and Hampshire. It was particularly severe because the disruption was compounded by South Western Railway’s decision to cancel trains on the same route due to planned engineering works on the line, something to which I will return.

A lack of investment in our roads has left many in a dire state, with less than half the local road miles in England and Wales now classified as being in good structural condition. Urgent work to repair our roads is vital, particularly as delays in maintenance compounds the problems, leading to higher costs and greater disruption.

As transport spokesman, I am of course the most important person on the Lib Dem Front Bench as I am the lead on that staple of every Lib Dem Focus leaflet, the ubiquitous pothole. I consequently welcome the Chancellor’s announcement today of additional funding to fix potholes, as I know the Minister will as well. However, before we get carried away by this bounty, let us not lose sight of the fact that it comes against the backdrop of a real-terms cut to the Department for Transport budget, which I will cover in more detail in a subsequent Budget speech.

Clearly, the roadworks needed to fix such problems inevitably cause disruption to the road network, leading to longer journey times, which are not only frustrating but economically damaging. In 2021, National Highways estimated that delays on the strategic road network, of which at least 15% were due to roadworks, cost the economy around £3 billion a year.

It is therefore vital that when roadworks are planned, disruption to the wider network is minimised. That requires communication across the sector to co-ordinate matters. However, it is sadly all too apparent that there is a lack of joined-up thinking, and that there is too much fragmentation across our transport system to achieve that co-ordination. On the London to Portsmouth route last weekend, for example, it should surely have been possible to ensure that planned work on the A3 and the rail line did not coincide. That is the type of problem that we need to avoid. I trust that the Department for Transport’s promised long-term strategy addresses such issues.

In addition to roadworks to maintain and improve our roads, another source of delay, frustration and cost is street works: utility companies digging up our roads. There is a great deal of congestion in Wimbledon town centre at the moment. Wimbledon Hill Road is completely shut because of emergency work on a collapsed sewer, which is leading to major disruption to bus routes and traffic jams in surrounding roads, significantly increasing journey times in much of my constituency. Of course, an emergency is an emergency—I understand that—but it does not excuse utility companies not doing all they can to ensure that disruption is kept to a minimum, as the hon. Member for Broxbourne said.

Companies are obliged to return the roads to the state in which they found them, but they often do not, as many people in my constituency know. Yes, utility companies can theoretically be fined up to £10,000 a day for delays, but many roads have fines capped at £250, and even that level of enforcement is problematic. The Lib Dems strongly believe that local authorities need to be given more powers to ensure that utility companies minimise the disruption they cause and do not act with impunity. The previous Government consulted on increasing their powers, including raising the level of FPNs that can be issued for certain street work offences and allowing overrun charges to apply at weekends and bank holidays, but the results were never published. The Minister has said that the results will be released in due course, and I hope that she might take this opportunity to tell us when that will be.

We all know that our road network is crucial to constituents and businesses. The Government could be doing more to keep the traffic flowing, people travelling and the economy growing.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne (Lewis Cocking) on securing this important debate.

The consensual nature of the debate shows that if there is one thing on which we on the Opposition Benches and those in His Majesty’s Government can agree, it is that nobody likes road closures and traffic jams and the misery that comes with them. In urban and suburban areas, they often mean unwanted congestion and pollution. As the hon. Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) said, they often mean delays not just for private motorists but for buses and hauliers. I gently suggest to him that after this afternoon’s Budget and the Chancellor increasing bus fares from the £2 cap that we brought in, people will be paying more to sit on the bus in a traffic jam under a Labour Government.

In rural areas such as my Mid Buckinghamshire constituency, and that of the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), a 100-yard road closure can often mean a 5 to 10-mile diversion. That is before I even start talking about Government-sponsored programmes such as High Speed 2, for which the road closures seem to go on indefinitely and forever. Fixing that is in the Government’s gift. Likewise, we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Dumfries and Galloway (John Cooper) about the intolerable problems on the A77 and A75, which the Scottish Government simply must fix.

Of course, in some cases road closures are not necessarily a bad thing—they are the result of getting things done—but how we manage them is important. Utility companies must be held to account. Whether action is taken by local government or by national Government through National Highways or another agency, it must be taken responsibly. The relevant authorities must remember that they are causing significant inconvenience to real people, their businesses, their school runs and their trips to the doctor, hospital or other medical appointments. If we can manage the situation, everybody will be much happier.

Let us not forget that it is only through economic growth that car ownership, and indeed other forms of transport, became affordable and grew for many. As part of our plan for drivers, the previous Government took action—we can discuss how to go further—on the critical problem of road closures that stick around for longer than necessary. We introduced a performance-based street works regime to ensure that utility companies resurfaced roads to the best possible standard, and a lane rental scheme, through which utility companies can be charged up to £2,500 a day for street works. That programme enabled the delivery of more than 2 million street works between 2022 and 2023.

In January, the previous Government launched a street works consultation, the results of which were clear. We therefore doubled fines in some instances from £500 to £1,000 for utility companies found to have breached the conditions of their jobs. We introduced charges of £10,000 a day for companies if their works overrun into weekends and bank holidays, which are the busiest days on the road network. We gave a direction for at least 50% of the money generated by lane rental schemes to be used for the improvement of roads and the repair of potholes. That money is already filtering down to local authorities.

In my own constituency, Buckinghamshire council’s “pothole pro” is making light work of what has historically been an incredibly time-consuming and labour-intensive task. The pothole pro effectively recycles and reuses damaged tarmac for resurfacing works, and roads are therefore being fixed more quickly and efficiently. That ultimately saves taxpayer money and reduces the time that people spend stuck in traffic or diverting around road closures. Technology is our friend. It can get repairs done so much quicker.

Conservatives are firmly on the side of drivers. What will the Minister and the Government do to improve the experience of Britain’s motorists, those who travel on our buses and that those who require the use of the road network to make deliveries and to get their goods around the country? What will the Minister do to meet the challenges set out by my hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne? What reforms will the Government introduce to build on what is already in place to hold those who dig up our roads to account?

It would be a good start for the Government to support the ten-minute rule Bill of my right hon. Friend the Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois), which the Opposition already support. That would bring about real action to improve the lot of all motorists. Will the Minister confirm the Government’s stance on that Bill, which we also saw in the previous Parliament? Britain’s motorists deserve to know.

The state of our roads is important, as right hon. and hon. Members have said. Will the Minister confirm whether the Government will maintain the £4.7 billion of funding, much of which was to be used to fill potholes across the north and the midlands over the next seven years, that the previous Government put in place in February through the local transport fund? Will it be put to good use in the way that the previous Government intended? Will the Government retain the £8.3 billion of funding for highways maintenance, which was announced in October 2023 in “Network North” and should last until 2033?

Will the new Labour Government continue that exact amount of spending? I fear that the Chancellor’s announcement in the Budget today of £500 million for potholes will simply not touch the sides of the problem we face as a country. Looking at my own constituency, where Buckinghamshire council has a £105 million road repair fund for one county alone, I do not think that that £500 million sum of money will go far enough to challenge and fix the problems facing Britain’s motorists. It seems that both sides of the House agree on the problem. Labour is now in government; will the Minister confirm precisely what it will do?

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship again, Sir Roger. I congratulate the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Lewis Cocking) on securing this debate on the impact of roadworks on journey times, and I thank all Members who have contributed to what has been an informative and interesting discussion.

People use our roads to make journeys every day, and how we manage them has a direct impact on everyone’s lives. The frustration caused by congestion and the poor condition of our roads are recurring themes that my Department and I are focused on. I am sure that we all, as Members of Parliament, hear the concerns that have been exposed today every time we knock on a door, frankly.

I recognise the point made by the hon. Member for Broxbourne about growing traffic congestion. That is one reason why the Government are acting to enable more people to choose public transport or active travel. We need to tackle that congestion and to think about it in the round. We are determined to deliver a transport network that works for all road users, whether they are drivers, bikers, cyclists, bus passengers, pedestrians or horse riders.

The challenge of congestion will only grow, given that over the coming years the number of roadworks will increase because of new housing developments, the continued roll-out of broadband and the need to meet our targets for installing electric vehicle charge point infrastructure to deliver the Government’s commitment to net zero. We also all need the services provided by utility companies, and we want them to maintain and improve their infrastructure. More than 2.2 million works take place in England each year, and the congestion created costs around £4 billion.

In addition, the Government are determined to tackle the problem of potholes and other road defects on our networks. As the hon. Member for Broxbourne will know, we have a manifesto commitment to fix 1 million more potholes a year, every year of this Parliament. I am pleased to say that we have already made a start by announcing, in today’s Budget, a £500 million funding increase for local authorities in 2025-26, which is an increase of almost 50% from 2024-25 levels. I am more than aware that authorities and Members alike will be interested to know how their areas and communities will benefit from that funding, and specific allocations will be announced in due course.

In total, the Department for Transport will invest about £1.6 billion in local highway maintenance in the next year. That includes additional funding on top of that already provided to city mayors through the city region sustainable transport settlements, to help local councils to maintain and renew their local highway network. Future capital investment in our infrastructure, including roads, rail and other things, will of course come in the spending review in the spring.

I enjoyed the contribution from the hon. Member for Dumfries and Galloway (John Cooper), and I hope that the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Transport enjoyed it, too, as that is a matter for her and the Scottish Government.

The pressure on our road networks caused by works is not going away. However, we want to find the right balance between allowing necessary works to go ahead and minimising the disruption for everyone using our roads.

The Minister’s opposite number in the previous Government kindly granted me a meeting about my Bill, which unfortunately ran out of parliamentary time. As I have 10 minutes to fill next week, will she allow me as part of my speech to say that we have discussed this today and that she has kindly agreed to meet me to discuss the merits of my Bill and whether the Government might be prepared to adopt it in whole or in part?

The appropriate thing for me to do is to listen to the right hon. Member’s speech next week and to the arguments that he makes. I am sure that we will find an opportunity to discuss it in the future.

I assure the hon. Member for Wimbledon (Mr Kohler) that National Highways always works closely with Network Rail to ensure that works on our national networks are co-ordinated. If that does not happen, I hope that he would draw it to my attention, and I would certainly seek to raise those issues with them.

There is already a great deal of scope for works to be planned, managed and co-ordinated more effectively—as the hon. Member for Broxbourne called for—and, importantly, for the public to be told when works are happening and to be warned about the impact that those might have on their journeys. The responsibility of the local highways authority is to co-ordinate any works taking place on their roads, including their own works. In doing so, councils must take account of the needs of everyone using the road, consider the implications of works for their network and that of neighbouring authorities, and act to minimise or prevent problems. Utility companies also have a duty to co-operate with the authority.

Street works permit schemes are now in use by all but one local authority. They provide councils with the proactive tools to improve the management of all works in the street, as well as offering incentives to minimise disruption. To support the transition to permits, the Department for Transport set up Street Manager, which is our online service for planning and managing road and street works in England. Since 2020, all local authorities, utility companies and their contractors, have had a single view of the street, with visibility of the whole network to help them plan and co-ordinate works for the benefit of road users. It enables better forward planning and more joint works. We also stream open data about live and planned works that apps and websites make available to the public. We have a commitment to continue improving the service to ensure that it meets users’ needs.

As the hon. Member for Broxbourne highlighted, lane rental is another tool to help local highways authorities to reduce the impact of works taking place on the busiest roads at the busiest times. Such schemes allow authorities to charge utilities up to £2,500 a day for works on those roads. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) expressed the hope that roadworks would be planned for periods when they cause least disruption. Such issues are devolved in Northern Ireland, but his point is well made.

Lane rental charges act as an incentive to encourage those who plan works to complete them as quickly as possible, to carry out their works outside peak periods, or to consider alternative locations to minimise disruption. Lane rental schemes also encourage joint works, as that can attract discounts or charges can be waived. Any surplus revenue can be spent by the council on ways to reduce the impact of works on congestion.

Highways authorities that want to set up schemes can bid to the Secretary of State for approval, and we have provided bidding guidance on how they can do that. As the hon. Member for Broxbourne said, four lane rental schemes are in operation: on Transport for London’s network in London, and in Kent, Surrey and West Sussex. The Secretary of State has recently approved a scheme in East Sussex, which is due to begin in 2025. Many more local councils are developing schemes and this Government want to support them. We want to make the lane rental scheme application process as easy as possible for local authorities, and I am reviewing the application and approval process with my Department to see what improvements can be made.

On the issue of fines and penalties, local authorities can already issue overrun charges of up to £10,000 per day for works that exceed the duration agreed as part of the permit. For a range of offences such as breaching permit conditions or working without a permit, fixed penalty notices can also be issued. As my hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae) said, these powers can and should be used to improve the daily lives of our constituents, who rely on the roads. As I grew up in his constituency, many of those roads are very familiar to me.

As has been said several times, the Department for Transport consulted earlier this year on proposals to apply overrun charges at weekends and to increase fixed penalty notice charges. I am fully aware that the Department’s response to that consultation is eagerly awaited. I am considering the proposals, and we will publish our response shortly. As I said, I look forward to listening closely to the comments from the right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois) about his forthcoming ten-minute rule Bill.

In addition to the existing range of powers available for use by authorities to manage roads on their network, I hope and expect that we will all see improvements in how utility companies carry out their works as more authorities operate lane rental schemes. My Department is determined to put people at the heart of everything that we do, so as we continue our work, we will constantly look at how we regulate roadworks to see if further improvements can be made for the benefit of everyone who uses our roads—drivers, bikers, cyclists, pedestrians, and so on. We plan, for example, to look at how urgent or emergency works, which I recognise cause particular difficulties, can be planned and co-ordinated more effectively, especially when they affect traffic and cause disruption, including for buses.

My hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) set out clearly how roadworks can affect the punctuality of the bus services that our constituents rely on. My constituents in Nottingham will very much recognise that, as we have some major roadworks in our city centre. While I am on the subject of buses, which are important road users, I gently point out to the Opposition spokesman, the hon. Member for Mid Buckinghamshire (Greg Smith), that the previous Government funded their bus fare cap only until the end of the year. We are extending the cap and investing in better bus services across England. I am also surprised that he did not mention the fuel duty freeze, but there we go.

I thank the hon. Member for Broxbourne for raising these important issues, which affect the daily lives of our constituents and all of us. I am determined to keep people moving and to deliver the cleaner, greener, smoother and less congested roads that all our constituents want to travel on.