Data blip blocks highways cash

Highways departments could get £250m a year extra to meet their maintenance backlogs, but only if a 'chicken and egg' data problem is solved.

That warning came from Barking & Dagenham LBC chief executive Rob Whiteman in a report for the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy.

His working group has been grappling with how councils can use asset management to gauge the value of their highway networks, enabling them to make an economic case for maintenance work. Money could then be directed where it made the biggest financial impact, rather than just used reactively to problems.

Experience in the utility and rail industries suggested the resulting savings could yield the extra £250m, the report said.

Mr Whiteman said: "More resources will not be deployed  until there is a sound basis of data, but the lack of resources means the need for better data and reporting remains to be properly addressed. This 'chicken and egg' problem must end."

Transport secretary Ruth Kelly has increased pump-priming support for asset management from £15m to £23m.