Government to Give Councils in England £140m for Weather Damage

An additional £140m is to go to councils in England to repair roads damaged by the bad weather, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has said.

A fund for areas with the most severely damaged roads will get an extra £36.5m – taking the total available to £80m and a further £103.5m will be shared between English councils for repairs.

Mr McLoughlin said the money would make “a real difference”.  The Local Government Association said the cost of storm repairs would be more than £140m.

Downing Street said the extra money brought the total government investment in road maintenance to more than £1bn in 2013/14.  The investment comes after the wettest winter on record in parts of the UK caused widespread devastation to sections of the road and rail network.

The Department for Transport has said the additional money will be distributed to the majority of councils in England by the end of the week.  Work should be completed before the summer holidays, it said.

Councils will be required to publish information on their websites by the end of August showing where this money has been spent.

Mr McLoughlin said, “This extra money will help make a real difference to the millions of road users and local residents who rely on local roads, giving them safer and smoother journeys.”

The Prime Minister said the government could afford to pay for the road repairs because of savings already made.

Mr Cameron said, “It’s because of the difficult decisions we have made on public spending that we can afford to repair roads damaged by the severe weather as part of our long-term economic plan to secure Britain’s future and help hardworking people.”