£38m boost for safer roads across England

A £38.3m government investment is to improve road safety on 17 of the country’s most high-risk roads

The announcement by the Department for Transport comes on top of the £147.5m already invested to deliver life-saving improvements on 82 high risk roads across England. 

Over 20 years, the funding will see significant reductions in fatal and serious injuries, up to as much as a 30.8% reduction on some roads. Improvements will include:

• Designing new junctions and roundabouts.
• Improving signage and road markings.
• New road surfacing and landscape management.
• Improved pedestrian crossings and cycle lanes.

This round of funding is expected to save 385 lives over the next 20 years, as well as reduce congestion, improve journey times and lower emissions.

The government is delivering a wide range of improvements across all roads, through the £24bn Roads Investment Strategy, a 30-point Plan for Drivers and the biggest ever increase in funding for local road improvements thanks to £8.3bn of reallocated HS2 funding.

Transport for the North (TfN) has welcomed the announcement – which will see £17m going to schemes in the North of England. 

Martin Tugwell, chief executive of TfN, said: “This is very welcome funding for investment in making our roads safer.”

TfN’s revised Strategic Transport Plan - which was being recommended for approval by the TfN board today (March 20) - has set a target to “reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured in traffic incidents to zero by 2040”.

He added: “It will take a lot of work to reach this target, from policymakers and politicians, highway engineers and road users themselves. But today’s funding is an important step along the road to achieving it.”

Transport secretary Mark Harper, said: “Britain’s roads are some of the safest in the world, but we are always looking at ways to help keep drivers and all road users safe.

“As part of the government’s plan to improve roads across the country, we’re providing an extra £38 million so that local councils in England have the support they need to keep everyone safe while reducing congestion and helping to grow the economy.”

According to the Road Safety Foundation (RSF), it is estimated that all tranches of the Safer Road Fund will save nearly 2,600 fatal and serious injuries over the next 20 years.

Steve Gooding, director of RAC Foundation, said: The Safer Roads Fund is the hugely welcome gift that keeps on giving because today’s announcement means another 120 miles of safer road improvements will be delivered to the benefit of users. 

“Such incremental improvements are key to achieving our collective aim for a safer road network as a whole.”

The 17 roads receiving funding from the Safer Roads Fund round 3, 2023 to 2024, tranche are:

• A579 - Bolton Council, £1,425,000
• A676 - Bolton Council, £1,025,000
• A432 - Bristol Council, £2,275,000
• A361 - Devon County Council, £5,040,000
• A690 - Durham County Council, £2,940,000
• A19 - Doncaster City Council, £2,960,000
• A19 - North Yorkshire County Council, £2,960,000
• A113 - Essex County Council, £3,600,000
• A6 - Lancashire County Council, £4,540,000
• A6 - North Northamptonshire County Council£2,200,000
• A60- Nottingham City Council,£2,225,000
• A6200 - Nottingham City Council, £600,000
• A420 - Oxfordshire County Council, £2,225,000
• A5191 - Shropshire Council, £650,000
• A2101 - East Sussex County Council, £875,000
• A583 - Lancashire County Council, £1,497,180
• A41 - Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, £1,265,000