The Highways Sector Council (HSC) has developed a proposal to transform the industry, support
delivery of the government’s priorities and strengthen the UK economy as the country emerges from
the COVID-19 pandemic.
The proposal sets out four areas for development and focuses on the highways sector which
been agreed with the Department for Transport (DfT) and Highways England (HE). These include:
• Environment: Supporting the transition to Net Zero, by developing a sector wide plan,
assessing asset classes, launching trials of zero carbon products/approaches, and testing
innovative techniques for carbon lock up
• Models: Identifying ways in which the sector can support the Government’s Project Speed,
delivering more quickly and more productively; developing a business case which defines
benefits to UK plc of having a five and ten year local government funding programme.
• Innovation: Supporting highways’ transition to digital particularly across the local and
strategic network boundary
• Skills: Undertaking a Highways Sector Skills Assessment to better inform future work in this
area
The HSC will now work with DfT and HE to develop key deliverables for the highways sector that
demonstrate real value to the government, road users and the wider economy.
Speaking about the proposal, a Department for Transport spokesperson said: “The Highways Sector Council has made good progress in developing a set of proposals which are well aligned to key national and Departmental objectives.
We are keen to see how HSC progresses in developing these proposals for the benefit of the
highways sector throughout the UK.”
Elliot Shaw, Highways England’s Executive Director of Strategy and Planning, said: “We’re pleased to
support the ambition set out by the Highways Sector Council. We look forward to continuing to work
on these proposals with HSC in the coming weeks to develop the proposal further.”
Anna Delvecchio, Founding Member of the HSC and Mott MacDonald’s Transportation Development
Director said: “We have been developing a series of proposals to establish better cross industry
collaboration with the Government to transform the sector. Developing the partnership has been a
great example of public and private sector collaboration during the pandemic.”
She added: “None of this would have been possible without the expertise and determination of Steve
Berry who sadly passed away last month. Through his and the industry’s collective efforts, we are
now much better placed to partner with the Government and support the country’s economic
recovery.”
Leon Daniels, Chair of the HSC said: “It has been a privilege to Chair the Council during its formative
period and we’ve made great progress towards establishing a partnership between Government
agencies and the private sector. This will be critical to delivering innovation, excellence and value for
money.”
Established in 2019, the HSC seeks to transform delivery in the sector, using a unified industry voice
and approach to work more collaboratively with central and local government to transform and
improve how the sector works across a number of key areas: people and skills, innovation, safety,
environment, value, investment and delivery models. It has responded swiftly to the challenges posed
by the coronavirus outbreak, particularly in the local highways sector, and has been working closely with DfT and HE, providing guidance on impacts with a focus on working towards building a stronger
programme for recovery to support the sector and the wider economy.
The HSC is seeking input from the industry to support the development of these initial areas of focus.
Please register your interest by completing the form on the HSC website here –
https://highwayssectorcouncil.com/contact-us. We will be launching the task and finish groups shortly.
