Budget 2018: Road tax to fund £30bn investment in English roads

Vehicle excise duty to be earmarked for major upgrades to England's road network

The Government is set to announce almost £30 billion of investment in the English road network as part of the chancellor’s budget today.

Philip Hammond will announce that the bulk of the money will be used for a £28.8bn fund for Highways England to spend on upgrading and maintaining motorways and other major roads. The bulk of that cash will come from vehicle excise duty (VED), which will be exclusively used for the scheme. It's the first time that road tax has been spent solely on the UK’s road network.

Hammond will confirm the scheme, and could unveil more proposals that might impact motorists, in his budget speech in the House of Commons today (Monday October 29). He is expected to speak at around 1530hrs.

The spending will mark a 40% improvement on the £17.6bn the Treasury spent in the previous five-year investment cycle.

Alongside that investment, Hammond is set to earmark £420 million for distribution to councils to fix potholes and carry out other road repairs and £150m for improving local road junctions.

The spending will be in addition to the existing £1.3bn highways maintenance budget and the previously announced pothole repair fund of £300 million.

The investment plan was welcomed by Matthew Fell, the boss of the Confederation of British Industry, which represents UK companies. He said: “investing so significantly in our roads could help ease the all-too-real delays that people face just getting to work.”

The Budget will also include a fund to establish ‘future mobility zones’ in three cities, where schemes such as self-driving vehicles can be tested.

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