Skip to main content

Private sector could reduce UK's road repairs cost

Private sector companies in the UK are preparing to aid local authorities deal with the effects of government spending cuts on roads. Mike Notman, outgoing chairman of the UK's top trade body for road maintenance, Highways Term Maintenance Association (HTMA), has warned that repairs and improvements to the nation's roads is an easy target for the coalition government, and claimed that private sector companies could reduce costs by as much as 15%.
May 14, 2012 Read time: 1 min
Private sector companies in the UK are preparing to aid local authorities deal with the effects of government spending cuts on roads.

Mike Notman, outgoing chairman of the UK's top trade body for road maintenance, 2479 Highways Term Maintenance Association (HTMA), has warned that repairs and improvements to the nation's roads is an easy target for the coalition government, and claimed that private sector companies could reduce costs by as much as 15%.

“Private sector companies undertake these services across the UK and therefore have much greater knowledge and experience of delivery,” he said.

Incoming chairman Philip Hoare has vowed to “develop stronger, productive and results-orientated outcomes across the sector” despite the pressures of government spending cuts.

He committed the organisation to further improving the quality of highways management and maintenance in a bid to reinforce the message that reliable and safe roads are paramount to the social and economic needs of the nation.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • PPRS event highlights transport investment shortfall
    April 30, 2015
    The PPRS event in Paris highlighted the need for additional investment in road transportation – David Arminas writes. Consider the global road network. An improved road from one rural African town to another can reduce the journey time from a one-day walk to a one-hour drive. This could save lives through access to a hospital; allow small businesses to work faster by getting in supplies more quickly; allow children to attend a better equipped school. Roads affect society by allowing healthier and bett
  • “It’s road maintenance stupid,” MEP Michael Cramer tells pavement preservation and recycling summit PPRS Paris 2015
    February 23, 2015
    Road owners around the world “need a highway to heaven” according to Michael Cramer MEP, chairman of the European Parliament transport committee. Speaking at PPRS Paris 2015, the pavement preservation and recycling summit, Cramer said that Europe’s current road policy “lies somewhere between AC/DC’s Highway to Hell and Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven” and that, to mis-quote Bill Clinton, the EU needs to start thinking “it’s road maintenance stupid” whenever the subject of highway investment is under consi
  • UK: new RSTA chairman Mike Harper is Stirling Lloyd specialist
    May 18, 2015
    Mike Harper, business development director at highway maintenance materials specialist Stirling Lloyd, has been appointed chairman of the UK Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA) in the UK. Harper brings 15 years’ experience with Stirling Lloyd to the role of raising awareness of new techniques and technologies for highways maintenance to the RSTA’s 84 member companies. He will work closely with key industry stakeholders and major client groups in the UK, such as Highways England, the Highways Te
  • Highways event focuses on budgets, road safety
    May 15, 2012
    The future of Britain’s highways industries, including maximising reduced budgets and improving road safety, forms the core of the conference programme at the Seeing is Believing event. With a keynote address and introduction by Roads Minister Mike Penning MP, Seeing is Believing, a combination of industry conference, trade exhibition and live demonstrations, has his full support, and is being held at a purpose-designed venue at the MIRA site, near Nuneaton, County Warwickshire, England, from 9-11 November