The move means contractors will have a guaranteed pipeline of work which future governments will not be able to wriggle out of.

The Department for Transport said: “This funding and reform will be underpinned by legislation so future governments cannot walk away from these commitments.

“It will give the construction and maintenance industry the confidence they need to recruit and train skilled workers to deliver this increase in transport projects over the coming years.”

The £28bn of investment includes a trebling of funding for motorways and major A-roads.

Details are contained in the new paper, ‘Action for Roads’, which also explains how the Highways Agency will be turned into a publicly owned company with six year funding certainty for capital projects and maintenance.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: “Since 1990, France has built more motorway miles than exist on our entire network, while Canada, Japan and Australia all spend four times more on their roads than we do.

“Today’s changes will bring an end to the short-term thinking that has blighted investment in England’s roads so that we can deliver the infrastructure our economy needs.

“Backed by the Government’s £28 billion commitment, they will give us a road network fit for the 21^st century and beyond.”

The Government’s reform and funding package includes:

• 221 extra lane miles of ‘Managed Motorways’, linking existing stretches between the North West, Birmingham and London to create a new Managed Motorway Corridor.
• 52 major projects funded with funding available for further enhancements to be identified through a comprehensive review of the network’s performance.
• Schemes to improve important freight routes, like the A14 and four lane capacity on the M4 from London to Reading.
• £12 billion for road maintenance over the course of the next parliament with £6 billion of this for maintenance and resurfacing 80% of our motorways and major A-roads by 2020.
• The remaining £6 billion will be spent on tackling the backlog of maintenance and reduce potholes on local roads which make up the rest of the country’s road network.
• Feasibility studies to solve problems at the most notorious hotspots on the road network – the A303 to the South West, the A1 North of Newcastle, the A1 Newcastle to Gateshead, trans-Pennine routes between Manchester and Sheffield and the A27 on the South coast.
• Faster delivery – work is already underway to look at how schemes can be planned and delivered more quickly so that the benefits of these new schemes can be felt as soon as possible.

The Government will introduce a legal framework to guarantee investment through a roads investment strategy which will come into force in 2014.

This model already exists for the railways and it will set out plans and performance criteria for the next five years of building and maintenance as well as the next ten years of project development.

Civil Engineering Contractors Association spokesman Alasdair Reisner said: “CECA is very supportive of the government’s proposals to provide certainty of investment in the roads sector.

“CECA has long argued that contractors can only provide maximum efficiency where they have good visibility of their forward programme of work.

“Too often the roads sector has suffered from boom-and-bust conditions that are hugely damaging to smooth delivery of projects.
“Today’s proposals from the Department for Transport offer the potential to resolve this issue once and for all.

“However, with less than two years until the General Election, it is vital there is no delay in implementing the legislation required to make sure this happens.”

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