Take that, roadhogs – new £2,500 per day charge on roadworks

Everyone hates roadworks, but for London businesses the issue is more serious. Roadworks slow down business, hold up critical deliveries and add expensive minutes and even hours to employees’ journeys. When we carried out a survey of London business leaders in September, 57 per cent told us that reducing roadworks disruption should be the mayor’s number one transport priority.

So it’ll come as welcome news to many of our readers that, as of today, utility firms will have to pay a levy of £2,500 a day when they dig up busy London roads during peak times. Transport for London estimates that 80 per cent of roadworks by private companies are carried out at peak times. (It certainly seems that way to us!)

TfL’s Lane Rental scheme will apply to the 205 miles of London roads that TfL manages – and TfL itself will have to pay the charge when it digs up roads.

Boris Johnson said: “Lane rental is a vital addition to our arsenal. Setting the meter running the moment the first cone appears will finally make utilities understand the full economic cost of their work.”

Leon Daniels, TfL’s MD of surface transport, said: “Our lane rental scheme allows us to encourage more roadworks on the capital’s busiest roads to take place outside the busiest hours, cutting