The Division for Transport (DfT) is failing in its accountability to take care of native roads in order that their situation is now a “nationwide embarrassment”.

That is in response to a damning new report revealed by the Home of Commons Public Accounts Committee – the group of MPs liable for overseeing the worth for cash and companies supplied by authorities programmes.

Its investigation discovered that “the situation of England’s native roads is declining” however “the DfT doesn’t know precisely how authorities spend its funding, as it isn’t ring-fenced, nor what it needs to realize with it”. .

Among the many points recognized within the report is a failure to take coverage and the usage of taxpayer funds “sufficiently significantly” when wanting on the 183,000 miles of native roads throughout England – 98% of the overall community.

It added that the DfT has inadequate information of the state of the native street community and that its strategy to funding their upkeep is just too targeted on short-term repairs.

The report comes after the Nationwide Audit Workplace (NAO) reported final yr that the federal government “doesn’t know” whether or not £1.6bn of taxpayers’ cash is actually making a distinction to the situation of England’s roads.

The NAO stated the DfT didn’t have a ok understanding of the situation of native roads, nor was it allocating funding to native authorities “as successfully as attainable”.

The Public Accounts Committee’s chairman and Conservative MP for the North Cotswolds, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, stated: “The declining state of England’s native roads is a nationwide embarrassment.

“In addition to harming the prospects for our financial system and communities’ personal social well-being, pothole-ridden highways pose an growing security risk to street customers.

“Nonetheless, it’s worrying that not solely is the state of our native roads on the decline, (but in addition) our investigation reveals that the federal government wants to search out out about these points from business our bodies and street customers themselves resulting from their very own patchy information.”

In flip, the Committee made 9 key suggestions.

On the failure to take the situation of native roads significantly, it stated the DfT “wants to obviously set out its roles and obligations” as a result of it “has not taken sufficient accountability given the declining situations of native roads throughout England”. .

On the DfT’s insufficient information of the situation of roads, it advised that the DfT ought to work with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Native Authorities to enhance its probabilities of a dependable information set.