Reallocated HS2 funding for highways
Made possible by reallocated HS2 funding.
The reallocated funding
High Speed 2 (HS2) is a construction project for a high-speed railway line in England.
Due to scope changes, the Department for Transport (DfT) is reallocating funds to other areas.
The DfT is supporting the London Borough of Havering by giving them a portion of those funds.
For both 2023/24 and 2024/25, they are providing £333k (a total of £666k) to keep either carriageways, cycleways, footways or structures safe.
Financial pressures
Since 2010, Central Government grants to the council have not kept pace with inflation.
The London Borough of Havering is now under significant financial pressure and services are being scaled back, including the volume of highways work.
The authority has a statutory duty to maintain highways.
Therefore, until the additional funding announcement, we were faced with having to limit our operations.
This challenge would have involved prioritising urgent repairs or implementing 'make safe' arrangements for emergencies.
| Year | Revenue funded | Capital investment |
|---|---|---|
| 2019/20 | £3.6m | £9.1m |
| 2020/21 | £3.8m | £12.9m |
| 2021/22 | £4.2m | £7.5m |
| 2022/23 | £3.8m | £7m |
| 2023/24 | TBC | TBC |
| 2024/25 | TBC | TBC |
Additional highways maintenance
The DfT funds have been used to undertake additional highways maintenance on treating defects before they become severely dangerous.
The table below shows the number of highway maintenance repairs from 21 December 2023 (the reallocation date) to 14 March 2024.
| Priority | Number |
|---|---|
| Emergency | 7 |
| Urgent | 106 |
| Additional | 745 |
| Total | 858 |
Since the £333,000 was given to the London Borough of Havering, 745 additional repairs have been carried out.
Communities
The table below shows all the communities in Havering that have benefited from the additional funds.
| Community area | Emergency | Urgent | Additional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brooklands | 1 | 16 | 29 |
| Cranham | 0 | 4 | 28 |
| Emerson Park | 0 | 7 | 29 |
| Gooshays | 2 | 3 | 21 |
| Hacton | 0 | 4 | 50 |
| Harold Wood | 1 | 2 | 16 |
| Havering Park | 0 | 8 | 17 |
| Heaton | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| Hylands | 3 | 19 | 150 |
| Mawneys | 0 | 5 | 71 |
| Petits | 0 | 8 | 52 |
| Rainham and Wennington | 0 | 1 | 25 |
| Romford Town | 0 | 11 | 20 |
| South Hornchurch | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| Squirrels Heath | 0 | 7 | 30 |
| St. Andrews | 0 | 5 | 135 |
| Upminster | 0 | 5 | 23 |
Investigating innovation for 2024/25
The Highways Service is investigating innovative methods to make best use of the same DfT funds in 2024/25.
On Wednesday 6 March 2024, we hosted a demonstration of the JCB Pothole Pro.
This modern equipment enables an efficient and effective excavation of the road surface.
With this plant, a typical pothole can be repaired in 8 minutes, as it reduces the time taken to prepare the ground for a new asphalt layer.
Utility works
We will notify statutory undertakers 3 months in advance of any planned road works.
They will have that notice period to carry out maintenance to their apparatus.
After the road works, a Section 58 notice (under the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991) will be activated, which prevents the statutory undertakers from digging up the road over the next 2 years, except for when there are emergencies such as a burst water main.
Benefits of the funding
The additional funding will give communities greater confidence in the Highways Service at a time when there are financial pressures.
Mostly importantly, the extra maintenance activities will enable safer journeys across the highways network.