Kier Highways is to provide highways services across North and West Northamptonshire, having been awarded separate contracts by the new councils for the two areas.

The awards will see Kier as the sole highway services provider to North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council delivering their new contracts, each valued at c.£30m per year.

Both contracts will run from mid-September 2022 for seven years with options to extend either or both contracts to a maximum of 14 years. Kier will be responsible for delivering highways design and construction as well as incident response and reactive maintenance, including the vital winter service.

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These are the first highways contracts the unitary authorities have awarded since they came into existence in April last year.

James Birch, Managing Director for Maintenance, Kier Highways, said: "We are delighted and feel privileged to be awarded these contracts and look forward to working with the newly-created unitary authorities. We are committed to supporting the councils with their objectives around environmental sustainability and delivering innovation to drive value for money, with our main focus on providing road users with a first-class network."

Kier will work with the councils to achieve net zero emissions by 2030, increasing social value and supporting local disadvantaged groups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This includes ensuring at least 70% of supply chain spending is with local businesses and SMEs by the end of the first year, employing 10% of the workforce as local graduates and apprentices, providing work opportunities for young people not in employment, education or training, and increasing the number of employees with disabilities year on year.