Spending Review gives motorways and roads get £24bn boost

The Spending Review includes commitments on EVs, transport and road maintenance

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced a £24bn plan to upgrade motorways and local roads as part of the 2025 Spending Review. Here’s what you need to know.

The government has just announced a huge £24bn plan to improve motorways and local roads across England between 2026 and 2030.

The investment, revealed in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Spending Review, is one of the largest in recent memory and promises to make your everyday drivers smoother, safer, and a whole lot less stressful.

What’s changing on the roads?

The funding will go directly into:

• Fixing worn-out roads and potholes to help protect your car and make driving smoother.

• Widening busy parts of the motorway to ease bottlenecks and cut down on traffic jams.

• Boosting safety with clearer signs, better lighting, and improved barriers.

• Upgrading junctions and roundabouts to keep traffic moving in high-stress spots.

  
  

Where’s the money going?

The money will be split between National Highways (which looks after major roads and motorways) and local councils, giving both the support they need to plan and deliver long-term upgrades.

Instead of just patching things up short-term, this approach means we’ll see more meaningful improvements, making everyday journeys smoother and more reliable.

It also includes commitments on EVs, transport and road maintenance.

Announcements include £2.6bn capital investment to decarbonise transport from 2026-27 to 2029-30. This includes £1.4bn to support the continued uptake of electric vehicles, including vans and HGVs, and £400m to support the rollout of charging infrastructure along with £616m to build and maintain walking and cycling infrastructure.

Labour also committed to providing £24bn of capital funding between 2026-27 and 2029-30 for motorways and local road maintenance. As spotlighted by the RAC, this is equivalent to £8bn per fiscal year – just under the total amount the Tory party pledged to spend (£8.3bn) over 10 years in its election manifesto to resurface 5,000 miles of local roads.

The Treasury said the roads funding increase would allow National Highways and local authorities to invest in significantly improving the long-term condition of England’s road network, delivering faster, safer and more reliable journeys.

And, as announced last week, £15.6bn is being invested by 2031‑32 through the new Transport for City Regions (TCR) settlements to give metro mayors of some of England’s largest city regions long‑term transport settlements.

Industry reaction

Rachel Ellison, advisory and programme development managing director for UK and Europe at Mott MacDonald, has responded:“Plans to spend £113bn on infrastructure provides certainty to the construction industry and ultimately enables us to realise the positive social outcomes that for the communities we serve. This commitment, along with the 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy that we expect to see published later this month, delivers a strong pipeline of work that will allow us to invest in innovations and the careers of the people who will deliver this work.

“As an industry, we now have the opportunity to work together to effectively deliver these programmes, projects and interventions as part of an integrated strategy giving the public confidence in our ability to deliver the expected outcomes.”

Vicky Read, CEO of the trade body for the charging industry, said: “The decarbonisation of transport is only possible if government and the private sector work effectively together. ChargeUK members’ commitment to invest £6 billion through to 2030 has already delivered over 80,000 public charge points, with a new one deployed every 25 minutes on average.”

She added: “It is vital that Government focuses both on stimulating demand for vehicles and targeting public funds in the most efficient way to complement private capital in infrastructure.

“ChargeUK is looking forward to working with the Department for Transport to ensure the funding announced today is allocated where it can have the most impact, in addition to taking action in other ways to help our members deliver widespread, affordable charging. This can be achieved by equalising VAT on public charging to five per cent, addressing the rise in standing charges, and extending the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation to include EV charging.”

Meanwhile, the RAC welcomed the commitment on local road maintenance.

RAC head of policy Simon Williams responded: “Giving councils the certainty of longer-term funding to fix their roads is something we’ve called for many years, so this is excellent news.

“Local authorities now have a golden opportunity to end the cycle of merely filling potholes and instead begin to be much more proactive in their maintenance. This must include both more surface dressing to keep decent roads in good condition and resurfacing those that are at the end of their lives. It’s incumbent on councils to grasp this new opportunity and show all road users how it’s making a genuine difference in the quality of the roads they use every day.”

“ITS UK welcomes today’s investment in the UK’s transport infrastructure, including funding for new and upgraded rail projects, £24 billion for motorways and roads, £750 billion for bus services, £2.3 billion for the Local Transport Grant and £616 million to maintain and improve active travel infrastructure," said ITS UK Chief Executive Max Sugarman. “These are all valuable investments, which will support the backbone of our transport network.

“ITS UK will be looking over the coming weeks to further understand the role of technology, data and digital services within these funding settlements. Crucially, this will require not just capital investment, but also the ability of transport authorities to procure ‘software as a service’ tools, using operational expenditure to enable the use of new technology to the fullest. 

“Through technology, we can ensure this investment is maximised, and that the intelligent transport sector plays its part in delivering a connected, seamless, safe, green and efficient network.”

David Giles, Chair of the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA):

“We understand that there are tough funding decisions to be made but it seems as though the Chancellor has missed the opportunity to make a long-term commitment to maintaining our local roads in today’s Spending Review. If this is the case, it will only result in further deterioration of this vital asset and an even bigger bill to put it right in the future.

“Local authorities have told us they need their highway budgets to more than double for the next five to 10 years if they are going to be able to address the backlog of repairs, which is now almost £17 billion* in England and Wales.

“So, while the Government’s commitment to additional funding for the 2025/26 financial year – the short-term cash injection with greater accountability announced in December – was welcome, it is unlikely to improve structural conditions or reduce road user complaints.

“It looks like overall DfT roads funding to 2030 has been cut to £24 billion (for both National Highways and local authorities) but further clarity on who will receive what share, how and when, is not evident. Nor is the level to which MHCLG resource funding allocations for highway maintenance may be impacted.

“That’s why we were hoping that the Government would commit to more certainty within this multi-year Spending Review funding horizon to give local highway engineers the visibility to allow them to “….invest in significantly improving the long-term condition of England’s road network…” and not just manage the decline of the network.

“Ultimately, investing in local roads** provides an effective return on investment for tax payers – provided that investment is sustained. It feels as if another opportunity has slipped by to help drive growth and make a lasting change to the condition of the roads on which we all rely.”

Finally, business group Logistics UK said the Government’s growth ambitions will only be realised if it prioritises the needs of the logistics sector in its forthcoming Industrial, Trade and Infrastructure strategies.

Kevin Green, policy director, commented: “The Spending Review makes some bold pledges for transport, power generation, defence, healthcare and home building, with transport capital investment to rise 3.9% across the Spending Review period. To turn these pledges into economic growth, it is vital that the government prioritises the logistics sector through the upcoming Industrial, Trade and Infrastructure Strategies – both by providing the infrastructure our sector needs to move goods efficiently, and by enabling our sector to efficiently deliver the country’s renewal that the Chancellor has committed to. It is why 30 Chief Executives of some of the UK’s biggest businesses recently wrote to Jonathan Reynolds, requesting that logistics is included as a foundational sector in the forthcoming Industrial Strategy.”