Pedestrian Areas: Repairs and Maintenance

(asked on 23rd January 2025) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to help support local authorities to fix (a) poor quality and (b) unsafe pavements.


Answered by
Simon Lightwood Portrait
Simon Lightwood
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 28th January 2025

The Government is committed to enabling local highway authorities to maintain and renew their local highway networks, including the footways that make up such an essential part of them. The Chancellor announced an extra £500 million for local highway maintenance at Budget 2024 for the 2025/26 financial year, which, for most authorities including East Sussex County Council, will mean an increase of nearly 40% compared to the current financial year. The funding is for all parts of the highway network, including footways, and it is up to each authority to determine how the funding is spent. The Government encourages local highway authorities to consider the needs of all road users, including pedestrians, when planning their highway maintenance programmes.

As well as the big uplift in maintenance funding, the Government has also announced an extra £100 million investment in active travel infrastructure next year, which will allow local authorities to improve footways in their areas. Further details of how this funding will be allocated will be announced shortly.

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