Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what support her Department provides to highways authorities to (a) adopt and (b) repair and (c)upgrade (i) unadopted and (ii) ownerless roads that form key parts of local road networks.

Unadopted roads that are not maintained at public expense by a highway authority are known as private streets, as defined by Section 203(2) of the Highways Act 1980. The responsibility for management of private streets rests with the owner, or more usually the frontagers, who are those owning property that fronts, or borders, the street concerned.

The Department has published guidance on gov.uk on “Highways Adoption: The Adoption of Roads into the Public Highway”, which was last updated in August 2022. It sets out how new and existing roads can be adopted by highway authorities so that they become maintainable at public expense. Any decision to adopt roads which are not highways maintainable at public expense is a matter for the local highway authority.