Department for Transport additional funding

The Department for Transport (DfT) has introduced a new incentive element for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to promote best practice in sustainable highways asset management. We have been allocated an extra £8,975,000 for 2025/26. However, 25% of this will be withheld until local authorities can demonstrate compliance with specific criteria set by the DfT.

This incentive process is designed to encourage continuous improvement in highways maintenance. It follows recommendations from the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee, highlighting the need for better understanding and transparency around the condition of local roads. The DfT expects local authorities to show that the additional funding is being used to increase overall maintenance expenditure and to strike a balance between long-term preventative maintenance and reactive repairs.

The first step in unlocking the full funding is to submit a report outlining key information, including the authority’s approach to asset management, estimated outputs (e.g. miles of resurfacing, number of potholes filled), and alignment with sustainability goals. 

The reporting requirements and further guidance are in our highways maintenance transparency report.

Network North

The Department for Transport (DfT) is providing an additional £8.3 billion to fund resurfacing and pothole repair across the country’s road network over the next 11 years. This funding is part of a £36 billion transport improvement plan known as Network North and has been made possible by reallocated HS2 funding, see link to the government’s website for more information.

Oxfordshire County Council will receive £2,629,000 in 23/24 and 24/25, as part of this additional funding. The majority of this funding will be used to prevent potholes from occurring by carrying out additional surface treatment work across the County. This is in line with our Asset Management Policy and will ensure we get the maximum coverage on our network.

In 2023/24 this money will be spent on the following works;

• B4477 – Kencot – a resurfacing scheme carrying out 8,796m2 of resurfacing.
• Pre surface dressing patching – 33 sites carrying out 14,500 m2 of patching

In 2024/25, we will be using this funding to add additional schemes to our surface dressing programme. This will result in an additional 29 schemes covering around 340,000 m2, which is equivalent to 47 football pitches. These schemes were:

• Fawler Village Road (Fawler): Uffington
• B4000 Shrivenham to Ashbury (Shrivenham): Shrivenham to Ashbury
• Faringdon Road, Shrivenham (Shrivenham): Days Ground to Majors Rd Rbt
• B4508 Hatford (Hatford): Bow Road to Manor House Farm
• Bow Road, Standford (Stanford in the Vale): B4508 to Bow village
• Charney Road, Charney Bassett (Charney Bassett): Spring Hill Rbt to un-named road
• Faringdon Road, Kingston Bagpuize/Southmoor (Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor): Abingdon Rd Rbt to Hanney Road
• Steventon Road, East Hanney (East Hanney): A338 to Hanney Road
• B4017 (Drayton): Drayton to Steventon
• Abingdon Road/Tollgate Road, Culham (River Bridge) (Culham): A415 to Sutton Courtenay
• Burcot Lane/Dorechester Rd, Berinsfield (Berinsfield): Fane Lane to Drayton St. Leonard
• Unnamed Road, Berrick Salome (Berrick Salome)
• B4009 Watlington to Britwell Salome (Watlington): Watlington limit to Grove Lane bend
• Red Lane/Chinnor Hill, Chinnor (Chinnor): Chinnor Hill to County Boundary
• B4012 Thame Park Road (Thame): Wenman Road to A40
• A418 M40 to Thame (Tiddington): M40 to Thame
• B4027 Wheatley Rd, Forest Hill (Forest Hill): Start A40 to Pound Lane Junction
• B4027 Beckley Bends (Beckley): Elsfield Turn to Oxfordshire Stove Company (HRA only)
• Unnamed Road - Elsfield (Elsfield): Through village only
• Unnamed Road (Wood Eaton) (Wood Eaton): Elsfield junc to B4027
• Yarnton Rd/Sandy Lane, Kidlington (Kidlington): Over railway
• Merton Rd, Ambrosden (Ambrosden): Merton Rd Ambrosden
• Oxford Road, Abingdon (Abingdon)
• A415 Frilford Road (Abingdon): Church Street, Marcham to Frilford Lights
• A420 (Multiple): End of KB duals to Pusey
• A420 (Multiple): Buckland Crossroads
• A4095 (Chesterton): From B430 Junction to vendee Drive junction
• B4035 Broughton (Broughton): Nr Friswell Rd Banbury to Broughton
• Church Hil, Tackley (Tackley): A4260 to village 

Innovation

At Oxfordshire, we are always looking at innovation when it comes to highway maintenance. Some more information on this can be found in the following news articles;

• Road maintenance carried out in Oxfordshire using latest low-carbon recycling technique
• Road maintenance carried out in south Oxfordshire using innovative recycling technique
• Pothole innovation trial believed to be first of its kind in the country

Streetworks 

In order to assist with keeping the roads free from scarring the Network Co-ordination team gather together programmes of work (where they are not believed by the owners to be commercially sensitive) and encourage the use of the forward planning notices in Street Manager and also by the use by the Highway Authority of S58 notices.  We use our local HAUC meetings (quarterly) to discuss our works and advise.  We have also created a forward planning team who have overall knowledge of the network and can work to ensure that any intrusive work is undertaken before surfacing commences.

Capital funding

Below is a table showing the splits in capital funding sources for highway works over the past 5 years.