Sus­tain­abil­ity is founded on bring­ing full and last­ing eco­nomic, social and envi­ron­men­tal ben­e­fits. Our chal­lenge is twofold; to ensure our net­work and the sur­round­ing envi­ron­ment are fit for present and future gen­er­a­tions, and to make sure our activ­i­ties and prac­tices have as lit­tle adverse impact as pos­si­ble on peo­ple and the wider environment.

Our progress towards deliv­er­ing sus­tain­able devel­op­ment requires coop­er­a­tion and involve­ment from all areas of our busi­ness and sup­ply chain to be suc­cess­ful.  We need to work with part­ner organ­i­sa­tions with an inter­est in the strate­gic road net­work both from the point of view of its oper­a­tion and its impacts.  Impor­tantly we need to ensure that the views of com­mu­ni­ties neigh­bour­ing our net­work form a part of our deci­sion mak­ing processes.

The High­ways Agency faces long-term chal­lenges in improv­ing reli­a­bil­ity and tack­ling capac­ity con­straints against a back­drop of increas­ing con­struc­tion costs, envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns and grow­ing traf­fic vol­umes. Find­ing the right bal­ance between mea­sures to make bet­ter use of the exist­ing net­work and pri­ori­tis­ing net­work improve­ments which sup­port eco­nomic growth will be a key chal­lenge for us over the com­ing years.

Road trans­port has a vital role in sup­port­ing eco­nomic recov­ery. The strate­gic road net­work car­ries a third of all vehi­cle traf­fic and two thirds of all freight jour­neys in Eng­land.  Our net­work is an inte­gral part of our national way of life facil­i­tat­ing links between com­mu­ni­ties and to leisure and cul­tural cen­tres.  We under­stand this doesn’t come with­out cost to the envi­ron­ment or com­mu­ni­ties adja­cent to our network.