Highways Agency

Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

Who we are: The Highways Agency

The Highways Agency is an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport (DfT) established in 1994. We are responsible for operating, maintaining and improving the motorway and trunk road network in England on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport.

The Strategic Road Network is valued at over £65bn and consists of 4,818 miles (7754 km) of motorways and trunk roads in England

Our Role

Although these roads make up only around three per cent of the country's whole network, they still carry a third of all road traffic and two thirds of all freight.

It is vital that an asset so central to the UK's economic and social health is kept safe and available for use. This means we are committed to the Department for Transport's targets to reduce congestion and the number of people who are killed or seriously injured on our network.

Our overall aim is "Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers". We are also becoming a more customer-focused organisation. Whilst remaining committed to our traditional function of building and maintaining roads, we have taken on a more strategic role of Network Operator.

This expanding role is developing rapidly as we increase our focus on traffic management and providing a high level of service to road users. This is illustrated for example, by the ongoing introduction of Traffic Officers onto our roads, a National Traffic Control Centre and seven new Regional Control Centres throughout England.

Our organisation is crucial in delivering the Government's Ten Year Plan for Transport. We also fulfil an international role by building good working relationships and sharing experience and expertise with overseas road administrations. This helps to promote the value of UK knowledge and expertise to support UK industry whilst learning about best practice across the world.

What we do: Our Strategic Framework

Our Aim

"Safe Roads, Reliable Journeys, Informed Travellers"

Our Objectives

We deliver our aim through the following five key objectives:

Our prime objective - what we are here to deliver

1. To deliver a high quality service to our customers by:
   • Reducing congestion and improving reliability through:
   • A programme of improvements to the strategic road network.
   • Improved management of incidents and roadworks.
   • Influencing travel behaviour through better information to inform journey choices.
   • Improving road safety.
   • Respecting the environment.
   • Seeking feedback from customers.

   Our enabling objectives - how we deliver

2. To ensure more effective delivery through better working relationships.
3. To implement best practice and innovative solutions to improve service now and in the future.
4. To be a good employer.
5. To be an efficient Agency with effective business processes and resource management systems.

In pursuing these objectives, the Agency works in partnership with a number of vital stakeholders including other government departments, private sector contractors, policy makers and the general public.

Meeting these objectives presents us with a substantial challenge, particularly given the volumes of traffic on our roads. To deliver these objectives we need the newest technology, innovation, and most importantly, the best people.