Cllr Martin Tett Leader Buckinghamshire County Council Chair LGA Environment, Economy, Housing and Transport Board Chair England’s Economic Heartland

Our Road Network – vital for social and economic well-being At the heart of day-to-day activities: Home to School Travel to Work Leisure and Social activities

Traffic Volumes – are increasing Notable trends: Increase in light good vehicles Shift to larger HGV models Buckinghamshire has one of the highest volumes of traffic of all County Council areas, which is a significant factor if you consider that we have the smallest network Traffic volume has increased by almost 5% in Buckinghamshire over the last decade (an extra 109 million miles travelled over the last decade), but this is about average across authorities Current Traffic Volume % Increase in Traffic Volume

National Condition of the Road Network – mixed picture The ‘proportion of network that needs improvement’ has decreased year-on-year BUT the % of local roads regarded as poor has gone from 13% (15/16) to 18% (17/18) Decline in road condition in 2011/12 coincides with heavy snowfall and exceptionally prolonged and heavy rainfall leading to severe flooding in both 2009 and 2010. The more network you have before 1 mile of network needs improvement the better

Government Funding – a mixed picture Highways maintenance grant needs to cover Roads Footways Drainage Bridge maintenance/repairs Street lighting Common for Buckinghamshire to have to top up the grant from its own resources (e.g. capital receipts).

Road User Satisfaction – work in progress The NHT survey asks road users to rate a range of factors. We have been persistently underperforming in 4 areas: condition of road surfaces speed of repair quality of repair deals with potholes/damaged roads

Financial Pressures – an on-going concern £420m additional funding in Budget – welcome but is a one-year settlement only Maintenance spending SRN £200,000 per mile Local £20,000 per mile Maintenance backlog estimated at £9.3bn - LGA call for 2p of fuel duty to be ring-fenced

Financial Pressures – the wider context

Growth Pressures – brings a need to balance growth with impact www.englandseconomicheartland.com

Our road network will remain important…

… need to have a co-ordinated approach to infrastructure planning and delivery ‘net betterment’ – requires us to think about implications for urban and rural areas; on natural and built environment Requires co-ordinated investment in: Digital infrastructure Utilities – gas, electric Water resources – supply, flood risk (extreme weather events)

Spending Review – will Government step up to the plate? Economic potential cannot be realised without a step change in investment Steps identified ahead of the Budget: Government work with us to put in place a National Policy Statement for strategic infrastructure Establish a ‘major scheme development fund’ that will develop Business Cases for the investment pipeline An ‘indicative funding envelope’ for the region –let’s have an honest conversation about the investment choices we have to make

Looking to the future… Air Quality/Climate Change Digital access to services/opportunities reducing the need to travel Societal trends – shared workspace; future generations owning fewer cars New Service/Business Models – autonomous vehicles

Delivering transformational growth is not ‘business as usual’