£400m cuts for councils

摘要

Councils have warned that they face a £400m reduction in local road maintenance budgets this year. Analysis by the Local Government Association (LGA) reveals that overall capital funding allocated to councils for local road maintenance will fall by 22% to £1.39bn in 2020-21. The LGA said this lost funding could pay for more than 9.5 million road repairs -the equivalent to 64,000 repairs in each local council area. Transport spokesperson Cllr David Renard said: 'It would take £ubn and more than a decade for councils to clear the current local roads repair backlog, with the cancellation of important planned works risking extending this backlog further.' The news comes as the cost of the road maintenance backlog on London's roads has passed £1bn, according to latest annual 'State of the City' report from the London Technical Advisers Group. The report covers all of the capital's roads, of which its boroughs maintain 95%, with Transport for London (TfL) being responsible for the remaining strategic routes. London Councils, which represents the boroughs, said the capital is suffering a serious shortfall in funding for repairs and maintenance which has increased over several years. This has also been exacerbated by the fiscal impact of the pandemic, with boroughs facing £2.2bn additional spending and lost income last year.