We’re live at the Department for Transport’s Lane Rental Conference 2026 in Tower Hamlets – it is a one-day event bringing together local authorities, utilities, and industry professionals to discuss how lane rental schemes, where companies are charged for occupying busy roads, can be used to reduce congestion from roadworks.
It focuses on sharing policy updates, practical experiences, and best practice, with sessions on tools like Street Manager and NUAR, case studies from existing schemes, and collaboration across the sector to improve how street works are planned and delivered.
This is Paul Hutton reporting from Tower Hamlets Town Hall.
09.30
Paul Chandler, Head of Traffic Management Digital Services, Traffic & Technology Division at the Department for Transport welcomes delegates, explaining this event is far bigger than ever imagined, with bookings closed at just over 200 people.
9.40
Jack Darby, Head of Streetworks Policy at DfT now gives a policy update.
He explains the background to lane rental schemes, new policies, legislation and schemes approved over the past 12 months. He then looks towards the next 12 months.
He says this idea is not about bringing in money, but making streetworks more efficient and changing behaviours. The schemes should only apply to the busiest streets at the busiest times, and that it will generally affect 5-10% of an authority’s networks.
The guidance is here.
“I’d say Lane rental is becoming increasingly important today because of the scale and volume of street works,” he says, and explains the costs to the economy are estimated at £4 billion.
He outlines what revenue can be spent on, and the flexibility on how many roads can be affected, including around strategic roads and cross-authority co-operation. They have also removed certain requirements such as unnecessary policy statement templates.
He now outlines the next 12 months: seven new lane rental schemes will launch expanding coverage across England, with another 12 being reviewed. Approval powers will move from centrla government to Mayors in late 2026, with statutory guidance on how to assess schemes. He stresses all schemes must comply with national criteria, including coverage, quality and governance standards.
“Because this model may be new for many areas, we’re not simply handing over the powers and stepping away,” he says. “We’ll be running training workshops across the summer, and those sessions will cover how to interpret applications and how to apply the statute criteria.”
During Q and A, a representative of HAUC, The Highway Authorities and Utilities Committee, talks about the lane rental tracker and requests that everyone keeps the scheme details updated.
10.10
We now hear about the National Underground Asset Register. The speaker is Andrew Gilbert, Senior NUAR Adoption Consultant at Ordnance Survey to talk about NUAR and Lane Rental.
He says NUAR is the government digital service that is providing the application, and OS is the service provider. This is a map of underground cables and pipes across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. He says the whole point is to make underground space more efficient.
He says there are more than four million kilometres of buried pipes and cables in the UK, with 600 asset owners. There are 60,000 accidental strikes per year, costing £2.4 billion. Access to the asset owner data takes more than six days and data is supplied in different formats and styles.
He says this needs changing and with NUAR, you’ll get the right data within a minute.
He says NUAR in numbers so far means 350 asset owners’ data published, with more than 3.2 million kilometres (nearly 80%) published.
Asset owners in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (not Scotland yet) can access this at no cost. Authorised street work contractors can too, with proposals for additional user groups for safe digging, emergency services, asset owners for core business use and public sector bodies having access too. This is currently in consultation.
He adds that the data is secure, streamlined and supported and delivers safety improvements for workers.
Operationally, it’s being run at scale with no cap on the number of users. It can be used as aa tool to refer to plans but is not available for the public so data use is safe.
He lists a number of organisations using NUAR already, such as water companies, gas and electricity networks, telecoms suppliers and councils.
10.25
Next up we get a utility company’s view, with Richard Boissieux, Streetworks Manager of UK Power Networks.
He talks about how utilities companies can work with authorities and says the drivers are safety, customer service, network customer minutes lost, employee engagement, cost and average durations. He says as utilities he gets a finite amount of money from regulators, so asks what is the expectation of where his additional money will come from because this is an extra cost to utilities – it can only come from the regulator or customers? As utilities he knows lane rental is here, and wants to make it work, but wants consistent schemes in places, reasonably locations identified as traffic-sensitive, give clear and realistic opportunities to avoid lane rental when possible and to be listened to.
He says he believes there are a number of concerns around the information provided as to why roads have been selected for lane rental and discusses the guidance shared:
He also questions why the lane rental money can be used for a large number of schemes that should be funded through other means.
He then summarises areas to consider when they start work, focussing on safety, location of the asset, power outage access and available workforce, but says there shold be better co-ordination to highlight collaboration opportunities for highway authorities, placement of spoil, parking of vehicles, shrinking of sites wherever possible and innovative solutions.
He also says that they are required to respond to emergencies quickly and that contradicts how they deal with lane rental.
He points out a concern is the changes in costs when lane rental is implemented:
He therefore asks for a number of things, including stricter controls around allocations of traffic sensitive schemes, dealing with the clash between the safety code and lane rental objectives, lane rental timings, and not to be a way of generating money. He says this means there must be a way of dealing with the way surplus funds are used, because he says it can be seen as a money-making exercise.
10.50
We’re now talking about “Applications without the stress” with Nick Ruxton-Boyle, Technical Director of Citisense.
He says lane rental schemes can be stressful, but there is help out there.
He says he is a transport planner by background and is a big supporter of financial tools that can change behaviour. Not only lane rental schemes but also workplace parking levies and road user charging.
He says he offers support lane rental schemes around business cases, applications data collection, setting up of the schemes, scheme design and liaison – all important for schemes.
He now gives his views on the concept. He says people should learn from those who have done it already, to seek support, follow guidance and understand that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. He adds that you should have a clear view on council works, start permit scheme evaluation early, upskill your team and understand guidance is likely to change.
Generally he says you need good political and internal support, ensure revenue generation potential is robust, and be clear about risk and uncertainties, know your internal approval processes and ensure any external suppliers are set up ahead of go-live.
He now shares his “view from his team” which include a need fr clearer communication, worries over moving goalposts, the impact on utilities, lengthy processes, innovation fund potential and impact, plus staffing challenges and monitoring.
For the first time today, and nearly 90 minutes in, we first hear about AI. He says AI will have a place in solutions, especially around camera and sensor technology for scheme justification and evaluation. He says it will help with data storage and visualisation and live scheme monitoring. There are also technological improvements with software packages for day-to-day scheme operaton.
He then shares a graphic around a lane rental scheme:
Rounding up, he says he want s to see flexibility in submission dates, national and regional steering groups and best practice solutions. He says you should be patient, manage expectations and understand your local governance.
11.10 – Coffee time! Back soon.
11.50 – We’re back.
Karl Kulasingam is up next talking about 14 years of street works innovations. He’s Roadworks Performance Manager at TfL’s Lane Rental Scheme.
He says the journey actually started 16 years ago in 2010 when colleagues prepared the scheme application project and in 2012 the DfT gave the “pioneering” scheme approval. First Lane rental funding and guidance (LRGC) funding applications were approved in 2014, a “lite” funding approval process was approved in 2015, and 45 applications were determined the following year. A fast track and extraordinary measures process was created in 2017 and in 2018 77 more funding applications were determined. A new scheme, with an updated scheme application process was approved in 2021, and a London Borough strategic group was formed in 2023. The Mayor pledged to expand the scheme in 2024, then a DfT borough scheme approval process was approved and four borough schemes are go-live in 2026, with 135 more funding applications determined.
He also talks about the political backdrop of the London Borough Lane Rental Scheme which included the inclusion of transport in the government’s five strategic priorities, the Mayor of London’s election manifesto including a lane rental roll-out and the encouragement and support for more local authorities to set up schemes and the allowance that 50% or lane rental surplus income to boost roads maintenance budgets.
He talks about the four boroughs – Lambeth, Merton, Enfield and Camden – which gave a consistent scheme framework, lane rental network definition and operational guidance document. He says was important to set the groundwork for wider expansion.
“We’ve got consistent lane rental operational guidance with a set of consistent waivers. So if you’re doing collaboration out there, you get 100% discount,” he says.
He says 27 out of the 32 London boroughs (plus the City of London) have delivered, or are working on, schemes. “Lane rental really does work,” he says and shares a graphic explaining why he thinks this is the case:
He talks about “funding and waivers in numbers”. He says 30 projects are being delivered, with the social cost of delays saved at £150 million and 130 waiver requests per year, with an average saving of £4.6 million.
He then touches on the use of surplus funds around preventative maintenance, capital, routine, major and reactive maintenance. He says you can use the money for innovation challenges, software, robotics, strategic initiatives, technology, environmental, enhanced information and data, materials, extraordinary measures, traffic management and future proving.
He then points to the innovation catalogue and recommends delegates look through this.
More to follow.
(All pictures courtesy of Transport Technology Forum).
