Highways, Street Lighting and Winter Maintenance Seminar 2025
Thursday 20 March 2025
Celtic Park, Glasgow
2025 finds the UK with a new Labour Government but with limited options in a continuingly difficult economic outlook. Local government re-organisation in England looks set to bring an end to traditional counties and spawn a raft of new unitary authorities. Could functions like highways may be better delivered via joint arrangements, potentially benefiting from economies of scale and. Tayside contracts may provide the blue-print.
Changes to tax and national Insurance will impact costs and require an even greater emphasis on efficient procurement and delivery of highway services. The industry is still reeling from substantial rises in material and energy costs and inflation has driven up wage costs in a sector already struggling with recruitment difficulties.
The emphasis on carbon reduction is set to increase and that has implications for fleet and asphalt procurement. Substantial investment is heralded in new power generation and transmission however there will be an inevitable lag whilst the infrastructure is built. Local Government is left facing a dilemma about which vehicles to buy when charging is potentially problematic. Decarbonisation of the supply chain is paramount, but we have taken the quick wins and the options remaining are increasingly costly.
Whilst spending on A roads has improved, budgetary pressures have seen that spent on minor roads at a decade low. The APSE / Survation survey continues to find widespread support for more money to be spent locally on roads and highways. The public hugely values highways maintenance, street lighting and winter maintenance and resilience services. This seminar will explore the core issues which will impact on the sector in the near future as well as the longer-term challenges.
With industry experts and local authority case studies, this seminar is a must attend event and will provide an excellent learning opportunity for Highways and Street Lighting teams bringing forward ideas for cost efficiency, innovation and funding streams.
Promoting excellence in public services
APSE (Association for Public Service Excellence) is a not for profit unincorporated association working with over 300 councils throughout the UK. Promoting excellence in public services, APSE is the foremost specialist in local authority frontline services, hosting a network for frontline service providers in areas such as waste and refuse collection, parks and environmental services, cemeteries and crematorium, environmental health, leisure, school meals, cleaning, housing and building maintenance.
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