2025 Spending Review: what does it mean for motorists?

The government has announced that it is to spend £24 billion in a long-term plan to repair and improve roads across England. As part of the ‘Spending Review’, which covers the government’s financial plans from the 2026-27 to 2029-30 financial years, Chancellor Rachel Reeves stated that the capital funding will be allocated to National Highways and local authorities to repair a wide range of roads, including motorways.

What will the fund be spent on?

A significant proportion of the £24bn fund will go into fixing damaged stretches of road, with the RAC predicting that there are more than a million potholes throughout the UK – a figure that has been increasing over recent years. Indeed according to the Asphalt Industry Alliance, 109,000 miles of roads have less than 15 years left.

The funding will also be used to improve the safety of the road network while reducing congestion where possible. This is hoped to be achieved by widening the lanes on busy stretches of motorways and upgrading busy junctions and roundabouts. Improved barriers and lighting and new road signs will also be rolled out as part of the fund.

The government hopes that the funding will help to improve safety and journey times across England; however, it’s unclear how the money will be divided between National Highways and local authorities. 

What other measures are included to support drivers?

Other measures introduced in the Spending Review to support drivers include a £2.6bn investment to decarbonise transport before the 2029-30 financial year. Of this, £1.4bn will go towards encouraging the uptake of electric vehicles, including cars, vans and HGVs, and a further £400 million will be used to upgrade the UK’s network of chargers. 

The measure comes shortly after the government announced plans that will see local authorities across England enter contracts with chargepoint operators. In doing so, it’s hoped that 100,000 public chargers will be added to the network, although there’s currently no indication on when this will be achieved. 

Finally, the Spending Review also saw the Chancellor announce that more than £3bn will be invested into the advanced building sector between 2026-27 and 2029-30 to ‘anchor the supply chain’ for zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) and their batteries, along with other forms of green energy transportation such as zero-carbon emission aircrafts. In simple terms, this is expected to mean investment in EV – or EV component – manufacturing.

Read more: How to claim for pothole damage

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