Oral Answers to Questions

Lewis Cocking Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Heidi Alexander]

The truth of the matter is that when this Government came to office, we inherited a raft of half-baked, unfunded schemes that we are having to work through to provide a sensible pipeline of infrastructure improvements for our country. I will take no lessons from the hon. Gentleman about investment in our national infrastructure.

[Lewis Cocking (Broxbourne) (Con)]

5. What steps she is taking to help prevent road closures when roadworks are not taking place.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Lilian Greenwood)]

I am delighted to confirm that, as part of the £1.6 billion investment in highways maintenance that the Government announced before Christmas, we will clamp down on disruptive works by doubling fixed penalty notices for utility companies that fail to comply with rules and extending charges for works that overrun into weekends.

[Lewis Cocking]

I draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

Drivers in my constituency are sick to death of the endless road closures and temporary traffic lights when no works are taking place. Will the Minister demand that utility companies do everything in their power to get roads open as quickly as possible, particularly when they have dug them up under the emergency procedure?

[Lilian Greenwood]

Absolutely. There can be legitimate reasons why works are sometimes left unoccupied—for example, when they are waiting for materials to cure or gas to vent—but I take the hon. Member’s point, particularly where utilities are using emergency procedures unnecessarily. We have examined Street Manager data and spoken to industry representatives and found no evidence of misuse. None the less, given the number of urgent works—which are, of course, not unrelated to the appalling state of our roads left by the previous Government—we will see what more can be done to ensure that these works are managed and communicated to road users properly.