Chancellor George Osborne has announced the creation of a new national roads fund.

The Vehicle Excise Duty will be used to pay for the upkeep of strategic highways in England.

Revealing his Budget at Parliament yesterday 8 July, Mr Osbourne said that money raised through the duty would, by the end of the decade, be used to improve the highways network.

He described the move as 'a long term solution to fix the county's poor roads'.

The Chancellor also announced that Transport for the North will receive £30 million in funding.

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The Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) Chief Executive Sue Percy, said: "While we welcome the announcement today of a creation of a new road fund, we will need to review what the detail behind this means for our sector as a whole.

"This has the opportunity to provide certainty in funding for the strategic road network. We believe that the UK Government must also begin to address the funding of our local roads which make up over 97% of the network."

Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) Chief Executive Alasdair Reisner said: "This is extremely good news for our sector because it goes a long way in ensuring a secure future for the maintenance and upgrade of the English strategic road network.

"Building on the completion of the roads reform process last year, long term funding reform of the roads network is key to delivering infrastructure that is fit for the 21st century."

(LM/CD)