Guidance

Guidance to maintenance expenditure: Table RDC0310

Updated 21 January 2026

Applies to England

Table RDC0310 presents local authority expenditure reported on a gross-equivalent basis, broken down by financial year and road type.

The road types included are:

• roads managed centrally by National Highways

• local authority roads, which are broken down further into major roads (‘A’ road and motorway) and minor roads. Note that the data sources from which the figures are extracted use the terms ‘principal’ roads, meaning local A roads and motorways, and ‘other’ roads, meaning minor roads (‘B’, ‘C’, and unclassified roads)

The totalled maintenance expenditure figures given in the table are broken down into three categories:

• structural treatment

• routine treatment

• highways maintenance, policy, planning and strategy (HMPPS)

Data Sources

Table RDC0310 presents maintenance expenditure by road class in England for National Highways (formerly Highways England) and local authority managed roads.

National Highways provides this information directly to the Department for the roads they manage, based on their financial accounts.

Local authority expenditure information is taken from the final (capital and revenue) outturn statistics published by MHCLG (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government). The underlying data is based on LA returns provided to MHCLG.

This document details how the figures that go into this table are collected and calculated.

The underlying data for these statistics are:

• Capital Outturn Statistics (specifically COR A2: Further detail on expenditure included in Roads, Street Lighting and Road Safety under new construction, conversion and renovation, roads_sup worksheet with local authority set to England)  

• Revenue Outturn Statistics (specifically Revenue Outturn (RO): Highways and Transport Services (RO2), LA_drop-down worksheet with local authority set to England)

Structural treatment

Structural treatment figures are calculated from data taken from both the capital and the revenue outturn statistics.

Capital outturn statistics

The England figure is taken from the capital outturn statistics for Structural Maintenance (Principal Roads), Structural Maintenance (Other LA roads), and Expenditure on Bridges. The proportions of expenditure on structural maintenance for major roads and for minor roads are calculated from the two structural maintenance figures. These proportions are then applied to the expenditure on bridges to estimate how much should be attributed to each road type. For example, if 30% of structural maintenance was carried out on major roads, then 30% of the expenditure on bridges is added to the major road structural maintenance figure.

Revenue outturn statistics

The figures extracted for ‘A’ roads from the revenue outturn statistics are the England figures for:

• Total maintenance expenditure for Structural maintenance - principal roads (Table 1b)

• Running expenses for Environmental, safety and routine maintenance principal roads (just unplanned patching included within maintenance, Table 1h)

• Other income for Structural maintenance - principal roads (joint arrangements that are included within maintenance, Table 1f)

The figures extracted for minor roads are:

• Total expenditure for Structural maintenance - other LA roads (Table 1b)

• Running expenses for Environmental, safety and routine maintenance other LA roads (unplanned patching, Table 1h)

• Other income for Structural maintenance – other LA roads (joint arrangements, Table 1f)

Additional figures extracted are:

• Total expenditure for Structural maintenance – bridges (Table 1b)

Expenditure costs and expense costs are summed by road type, then income is subtracted. As with the capital outturn statistics, the proportions of the above expenditure which applies to principal roads and other LA roads are used to split the total expenditure for maintenance of bridges between the two road types. These figures are added to the figures calculated from the capital outturn statistics to produce the final figures for structural treatment on ‘A’ roads and minor roads.

Routine treatment

For calculating routine treatment, data for England is taken only from revenue outturn statistics.

The figures extracted for ‘A’ roads are:

• Total maintenance expenditure for Environmental, safety and routine maintenance (ESRM) - principal roads (Table 1b)

• Running expenses for Environmental, safety and routine maintenance - principal roads (unplanned patching, Table 1h)

• Other income for Environmental, safety and routine maintenance - principal roads (joint arrangements, Table 1f)

The figures extracted for minor roads are:

• Total maintenance expenditure for Environmental, safety and routine maintenance (ESRM) - other roads (Table 1b)

• Running expenses for Environmental, safety and routine maintenance - other roads (unplanned patching, Table 1h)

• Other income for Environmental, safety and routine maintenance - other roads (joint arrangements, Table 1f)

Additional figures extracted are:

• Total expenditure for winter service (Table 1b)

Total figures for principal road and for minor road are calculated by summing expense and expenditure figures then subtracting other income. Winter service expenditure is then proportionally attributed to those figures in the same way as for expenditure on bridges.

HMPPS

The HMPPS data is only available for local roads and cannot be split by road classification. Its figure is extracted from revenue outturn statistics (total expenditure for highways maintenance planning, policy and strategy, Table 1a).

Adjusting for inflation

All figures in the table are adjusted using GDP deflators at market prices as supplied by HM Treasury in September of the financial year. Therefore, the figures will change each year because of inflation.