"Reforming Kent's Roads" is simply Recycling Conservative Budgets
A press release arrives from KCC, lauding the new administration for “Reforming Kents Roads”. Except it is doing nothing of the kind.
"Kent County Council (KCC) has announced plans to Reform Kent’s Roads starting with a major £67 million investment in the county’s 5,400 mile road network."
How much of this is new money not in the 2025/26 budget or funded by Central Government?
Answer: none.
The Budget book from February, Page 11:
https://www.kent.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/214290/Budget-Book-2025-26.pdf
Highways Asset Management/Annual Maintenance [Maintaining Kent's roads] 2025/26: £65,825,000
So the budget inherited from the last administration included a 2025/26 spend of £65.8m. This press release, 6 months later, discusses a budget of £67m. When questioned however, they admit there is no new money from KCC, and talk about a grant from Government that was ALREADY INCLUDED in the last administration's budget. That they are saying that it's not £67m (up £1m on that budget is interesting: I would suspect that's becuase they got the numbers wrong, rather than any actual new money. Perhaps the Cabinet Member would care to explain?
Without new money, that press release is deeply misleading and does the authority no credit. Kent's Reform administration appear adept at only one thing: recycling announcements made by the previous Conservative administration, and doing so badly.