Overview: Highways (Financing) Bill
Published 6 October 2026
© Crown copyright 2026
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/highways-financing-bill/overview-highways-financing-bill
The Highways (Financing) Bill (‘the bill’) establishes a statutory framework to enable private sector investment to construct, operate, maintain and improve new and existing strategic road infrastructure through a regulated asset base (‘RAB’) model and for private companies to act as a highway authority for that infrastructure.
The bill does not replace or remove existing delivery mechanisms for strategic road infrastructure. Instead, it provides an additional route to delivery for projects where it is appropriate and desirable to leverage private sector investment to enable timely delivery. It is expected to be used only for a limited number of large-scale projects.
The bill introduces a licensing and regulatory regime intended to provide certainty to investors while protecting the interests of road users.
In establishing the RAB model for the roads sector, the bill will:
- name the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) as the independent regulator for schemes funded under this model and set out its duties and the duties of the Secretary of State for Transport with regard to the bill
- set out how a licence for the construction, operation, maintenance and/or improvement of specified highways can be granted, the conditions of licences, revocation and modification procedures, functions of the licence holder and provisions for transfer schemes
- outline how tolls may be collected and enforced by the licence holder and how functions of the licence holder may be delegated
- establish the oversight and enforcement powers and procedure the ORR will have to help ensure the licence holder executes its responsibilities set out in the licence
- set out the special administrative regime and restrictions on insolvency procedures to help ensure the continued functioning of the highway should the licence holder not be able to pay its debts
- provide powers for the disclosure and sharing of information from the licence holder to the ORR and Secretary of State, ensuring both can perform their functions
- give the Secretary of State a regulation making power with respect to litter functions for its specified highway/s and separately create a stakeholder group to advise the ORR in the exercising of the ORR’s functions under the bill from the perspective of specified highways’ users and other relevant persons with an interest in specified highways
The bill will also include one additional measure, not directly related to the establishment of a RAB model. The measure will enable the use of barrierless charging across all tolled undertakings.
Remote payment systems (rather than toll booths) can:
- support smoother journeys
- reduce congestion and safety risks on toll roads
Older tolled undertakings, such as the M6 Toll, are not currently able to adopt barrierless charging. This measure would enable, but not require, their use.