Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

Foreword

Looking back on last year, the Highways Agency has a lot to be proud of. We delivered a large investment plan, including a £400 million fiscal stimulus package which allowed the acceleration of key schemes and raised the overall condition of the network.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee recognised that we are following best practice in contract management, securing value for money and improving the level of certainty in delivering to budget and timescales. We were also very successful in keeping the network running during the most sustained adverse winter conditions for over 30 years. This could not have been achieved without the sound planning and commitment of our staff and suppliers.

To outline our plans for the future, we have published a strategic plan setting out our five key goals for 2010-15. This year's business plan represents the first step towards realising these goals.

We will be concentrating on the things which really matter - providing a high quality service to our customers, delivering financial efficiency and displaying real professionalism in what we do. In doing so, we will ensure that the strategic road network operates safely, efficiently and effectively, and is capable of meeting the demands placed upon it in an increasingly sustainable manner.

We will focus on the performance of the network as a priority, maintaining and renewing ageing parts of the physical asset. We will address capacity on specific sections of the network through implementing the managed motorways programme and we will deliver other major schemes scheduled for completion, such as the A3 tunnels at Hindhead which will be completed in 2011.

We will renew our efforts on the efficient and effective administration of the business necessary to support this work, and we are increasing our efforts to protect the health, safety and welfare of all our staff, road workers and road users.

The year ahead brings fresh challenges, none more immediate than the financial constraints facing the public sector at large. We will meet the pressure of having reduced funds by delivering real value for money as we operate this vital national asset. Although this is an unprecedented challenge for the Highways Agency, I am confident in our ability to deliver improved customer service, additional capacity, asset resilience and targeted traffic information in these tougher times.

Graham Dalton
Chief Executive

• Download the Business Plan 2010-2011 (PDF 2MB)