The Safer Roads Fund is an innovative programme, providing funding to road authorities to implement a variety of measures on local authority A roads not on the Major Road Network in England. It also gives road authorities a practical opportunity to apply the principles of the Safe System, teaching them to use new innovative tools in their development of schemes.
The Road Safety Foundation has helped the Department for Transport scope the investment opportunity, and has worked alongside the local authorities receiving funding to support their use of the route review process and tool developed by Road Safety Foundation and iRAP. As part of this work the Road Safety Foundation has also delivered an extensive training programme to partners and road authorities beyond the fund recipients.
The Safer Roads Fund officially began in 2016 when the Secretary of State for Transport announced an initial investment of £100m allocated to upgrading 50 of England’s ‘most dangerous’ local A road routes, selected using the Road Safety Foundation’s Crash Risk Mapping analysis of 2012-2014 data. In total, some 450 miles of road were eligible for these improvements.
Some of the schemes are complete, others are still being delivered. Relative to the background trend, the number of crashes resulting in people being killed or seriously injured on these routes has been falling ever since, as more and more of the schemes have been completed.
In 2023 and 2024, the Secretary of State for Transport announced further funding for the Safer Roads Fund, totalling £90m, allocated to upgrading a further 45 of England’s ‘most investable’ local A road routes, selected using the Road Safety Foundation’s Crash Risk Mapping analysis of 2014-2019 data. In total, a further 280 miles of road were eligible for these improvements.
We continue to support the Local Authorities as they enter the detailed design phase of their projects.
