City council will look to borrow £185m over 25 years to go towards the total costs as it looks to tackle the poor state of roads across the whole city in a five-year plan. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool is to borrow £185m towards a huge £200m investment into a city-wide road repairs programme.

A report to the city council’s cabinet on Friday, April 20, will recommend action to tackle potholes and poor surfaces on roads all over Liverpool. This will include £160m for road reconstruction over the next five years, £25m for resurfacing and £15m for potholes.

The £200 m package will radically improve the condition of roads across the city and is a response to years of chronic underfunding, following central Government cuts of £444m to the city council’s budget since 2010.

The bulk of this new investment will come from borrowing £185m over 25 years at low interests rates, supported by savings generated by the council’s transformation plan and ‘Invest to Earn’ strategy, which generates income streams from commercialising council assets.

As part of the announcement, the council cited a recent peer review by the Local Government Association which found Liverpool City Council had prudent levels of debt for one of the major ‘core cities’.

Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson said: “I drive on the same roads as everyone else, so there is no-one more aware of the problem that me. This major new investment in our highways – £200m – is a response to the scale of the problem we face.

“The people of Liverpool can be assured that we have been lobbying the Government consistently in recent years to help us fix the problem, but it’s clear from the Chancellor’s recent spring statement there is no reprieve from the Government’s austerity programme.”