Written questions by Hollinrake.

How many miles of road Highways England manages in each county of England.

National Highways is responsible for managing England’s strategic road network, which is made up of over 4,500 miles of centrally managed motorway and main A-roads. The latest available data on road length of centrally managed motorways and A-roads broken down by local authority can be found on GOV.UK (Table RDL0102): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/road-length-statistics-rdl.

What statistics her Department holds on the (a) number of potholes repaired and (b) area of roads resurfaced each year.

The Department does not collect data on the number of potholes treated or miles of road resurfaced in each local authority area each year, but instead collects information from local highway authorities on the overall condition of their roads. This is published annually, together with other information such as local authority expenditure on highway maintenance, on gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/road-condition-statistics-data-tables-rdc.

Whether repairing potholes is (a) revenue and (b) capital expenditure for local authorities.

The Department for Transport provides local highway authorities with capital funding for local highway maintenance. Local authorities receive revenue funding from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government through the Local Government Finance Settlement. Capital funded highway maintenance activities are typically structural in nature and may include planned reactive repairs, such as permanent small-scale repairs to roads and pavements. However, capital funding cannot be used to fund the operating costs of a service, or for recurring expenditure such as grass-cutting or other cyclical maintenance activities, or for temporary short-term patching of potholes.

How much (a) Network North and (b) repurposed High Speed 2 funding was given to local highways authorities in 2024-25; and whether she plans to continue that funding in 2025-26.

In 2024/25 the previous Government allocated £150 million of additional highway maintenance funding to local highway authorities as part of its Network North plan, all of which was repurposed High Speed 2 funding. This Government has allocated £500 million of additional highway maintenance funding to local highway authorities for 2025/26. Funding beyond 2025/26 is a matter for the forthcoming Spending Review.

Pursuant to the Answer of 3 March 2025 to Question 33369 on Roads: Hampshire, whether the change to local highways allocations for 2025-26 (a) is in addition to or (b) replaces the funding for highways from (i) Network North and (ii) repurposed HS2 funding announced on 4 October 2023.

The highway maintenance funding uplift of £500 million for 2025/26, which was announced by the Chancellor in October 2024, comes on top of the increase of £150 million in 2024/25 that was announced by the previous Government as part of the Network North plan. The 2024 Budget document makes clear that the £150 million Network North funding increase has, in effect, become part of the highway maintenance funding baseline. The Government will say more on future years’ funding after the Spending Review.

What guidance her Department has issued to local authorities on whether a road in a new build development should be adopted by a local authority.

Any decision on whether or not to adopt roads of this sort is a matter for the local highway authority. 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 the process by which new and existing roads can be adopted by highway authorities so that they become maintainable at public expense.

What guidance her Department has issued to local authorities on the practice of charging (a) to allow householders to park within the curtilage of their property without a formally approved dropped kerb and (b) making highways works to drop a kerb; and whether councils are able to generate a profit from such charges.

The Department has issued no guidance to local authorities on these matters. Section 184 of the Highways Act 1980 makes clear that local authorities may recover costs of carrying out works to create a dropped kerb, once complete.

Pursuant to the Answer of 13 February 2025 to Question 29617 on Heathrow Airport, whether she plans to have a vote in Parliament on the revised Airports National Policy Statement.

The Government has invited proposals for a third runway at Heathrow to be brought forward by the summer. Once proposals have been received, the government will review the Airports National Policy Statement in line with the requirements of the Planning Act 2008. When conducting the review, the Secretary of State will comply with the consultation, publicity and parliamentary requirements of the Planning Act 2008.

What steps is her Department taking to help reopen Hammersmith Bridge to vehicular traffic; and what responsibilities (a) central government, (b) Transport for London and (c) the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham have to finance the repairs.

My Department is continuing to work productively with both the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (LBHF) and Transport for London (TfL) to explore possible next steps for the Hammersmith Bridge restoration project. As the asset owner, LBHF is ultimately responsible for the repair and maintenance of Hammersmith Bridge. Given the challenging fiscal environment, the Department is clear that any further funding consideration is contingent upon an agreed engineering solution and cost sharing approach between partners.

Pursuant to the Answer of 27 January 2025 to Question 27600 on Electric Vehicles: Charging Points, what steps her Department has taken to introduce a unified consent regime for all street charging point (a) consents and (b) permits since 5 July 2024.

The Government is committed to accelerating the roll-out of charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an electric vehicle. Several changes have been made over time to simplify and accelerate the installation of public chargepoints, such as local authorities being able to appoint operators to install chargepoints on-street without applying for planning permission. In December, the Government announced that it will legislate to allow chargepoint operators access to street works permits and Street Manager, which is the DfT’s online service for planning and managing works in use by every authority and utility company in England. This will remove the need for them to obtain costly and time-consuming licences. The Government also confirmed further changes to permitted development rights, cutting costs and required permissions for chargepoint installation. These changes will speed up public and private EV chargepoint deployment in England, ensuring a rapidly expanding and available network.

Whether the Government ban on the sale of new petrol-fuelled vehicles from 2030 includes sit-on, petrol-fuelled lawnmowers for (a) domestic and (b) non-domestic use.

The Government’s commitment is for the phase out of new cars that rely solely on an internal combustion engine from 2030. Petrol-fuelled lawnmowers are considered non-road mobile machinery and therefore would not be in scope of the commitment for either domestic or non-domestic use. The Government will set out further details on its proposals in due course.

What her policy is on local highways authorities delivering carbon savings by turning off street lighting at night.

The management of street lighting in England is the responsibility of local highway authorities, and it is for each local highway authority to decide the level of service they wish their street lighting network to deliver, and at what times. In reaching their decisions local authorities will take a number of factors into account, including the safety of all road users.The Department for Transport encourages all local highway authorities to replace their street lighting with LED lighting, which is better for the environment than traditional street lighting.The Department is also funding a £30 million research programme (“Live Labs 2”) to allow local authorities to pilot innovative ways of reducing the carbon impact of their highways operations. One of the projects is piloting new ways of decarbonising and rationalising street lighting, and testing lower carbon alternatives to it.

How much funding from the Spring Budget 2022 for the purchase of new electric vans via the plug-in vehicle grant remains available.

Over the last two financial years since Spring 2022, the Plug in Van Grant has supported the purchase over 30,000 zero emission vans. The Government continues to recognise the importance of grants, providing £120 million for next financial year to incentivise the uptake of zero emission vans and wheelchair accessible electric vehicles. All grants remain under review to ensure best value for money for the taxpayer.

With reference to paragraph 3.80 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October, what proportion of the £120 million is new funding.

The £120m of funding announced in the Budget for 2025/26 is in addition to the existing funding of £120m in 2024/25, and will continue to support the purchase of new electric vans as well as the manufacture of wheelchair accessible electric vehicles (EVs).

What recent estimate her Department has made of the (a) cost of preparing and (b) length of the environmental impact assessment for the Lower Thames Crossing development consent order application.

Due to the level of interdependency between the large number of different elements of the Lower Thames Crossing Development Consent Order (DCO) application, it is not possible to accurately attribute costs to the production of the individual documents within it. However, the total amount spent on the planning process is £295.1million. The Environmental Impact Assessment information submitted in 2022 as part of the Lower Thames Crossing DCO application comprised of approximately 12,000 pages.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Better Buses Bill on connectivity in (a) rural and (b) underserved areas; and whether she plans to allow community transport schemes to participate in the enhanced bus services framework under the Bill.

As announced in the King’s Speech on 17 July 2024, the government will introduce a Buses Bill later this parliamentary session, which will put decision-making into the hands of local leaders, including in rural areas right across England. The Bill will seek to give local areas the choice of pursuing bus franchising, high quality partnerships with the private sector, or local authority owned bus companies. This will allow local areas to determine how best to design their bus services so that they have control over routes and schedules to ensure they reflect the needs of the communities they serve, including considering how community transport services, alongside regular stopping services, can improve the experience for bus passengers. The Bus Services Act 2017 requires that community transport operators are consulted as part of the franchising process.