Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2025 to Question 38041 on Roads: Repairs and Maintenance, whether the complete resurfacing of an existing road is classed as capital or revenue expenditure.

It is up to local highway authorities’ Section 151 officers to determine what types of highway maintenance expenditure can legitimately be classed as capital and what as revenue expenditure, following the advice provided by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and others. There are some grey areas, but the complete resurfacing of an existing highway by a local highway authority will almost always be classed as capital expenditure. This is because it would count as improving a council-owned asset and making it last longer.