“I understand you are the highway authority for the area. Therefore, I wish to know the total replacement cost of your local road system (ie: the total investment in roads) at current prices, including the cost of land. Please do not include private roads, toll roads or the trunk road system for which I already have figures.
I do NOT mean anything to do with maintenance. The query relates to exactly what it requests. To attempt to make the enquiry even more clear: imagine the whole of your local road system became unusable (impossible), then how much would you have to spend to restore the whole system as it was before the catastrophe?”
This information is commonly known as the Gross Replacement Cost (GRC) for highway assets in Devon, and is a calculation we submit to central Government annually (at the end of August each year). The formerly reported GRC valuation as at August 2019 (inclusive of land) was £17.96 billion.
This year’s information is due to be available by the end of next month, but to identify, locate, retrieve and extract the information before then we estimate would take around 97 hours which is well in excess of the 18 hours public authorities are required to spend on Freedom of Information Act requests under Section 12 of the Act – ‘Cost of Compliance’.
In order to provide advice and assistance we can confirm we are reviewing the latest GRC value for highway assets inclusive of land at current prices, for submission to Whole Government Accounts (WGA) in August of this year and anticipate that this will be available by the end of August 2020. That figure will give the most accurate and current valuation for our highway assets based on the most recent valuation rates.
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accounting (CIPFA) publishes financial figures within the public sector, and these are publicly available in a 240 page report by HM Treasury for the most recent statement year ending 31 March 2018; financial figures within the public sector. This report consolidates the UK public sector and is a uniquely comprehensive view of the Government’s financial position and performance, and provides highway asset replacement figures at national level.