Publications
  • Council parking revenue in England 2022-23 17 Apr 2024

    English councils made a combined profit of £923 million from their parking activities in 2022-23. This was up from the £854 million recorded in the previous financial year. The local authoriti
  • Weekly fuel fact sheet 15 Apr 2024

    Each week the RAC Foundation publishes its latest fuel fact sheet which sets out the latest pump prices, rates of fuel taxation and cost of crude oil.
  • Reviewing the approved mileage allowance payment 14 Jul 2023

    People who drive their own cars for work purposes are being short-changed because the tax-free amount they can receive in recompense has not changed for more than a decade. Currently, the Treasury
  • Substandard road bridges in Great Britain - 2021 data 25 Mar 2022

    The number of substandard road bridges managed by councils across Great Britain has risen for the second year running. At the same time council engineering experts are warning about a shortage of s
  • Fuel duty decline - a technical note 11 Jan 2022

    The Chancellor could face losing almost a third of the revenue he gets from fuel duty from cars before the end of the decade because of the move to green motoring. However, the blow to the public f
  • New road vehicle CO2 emissions - response to DfT green paper 28 Sep 2021

    The RAC Foundation fully supports the government’s attempts to decarbonise road transport and backed, with caveats, the move to halt the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the UK in 2030.  Co
  • Substandard road bridges in Great Britain - 2020 data 29 Jan 2021

    The number of substandard road bridges managed by councils across Great Britain is increasing.Local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales have identified 3,105 bridges – defined as structures o
  • Vehicle Excise Duty - response to HM Treasury call for evidence 07 Sep 2020

    The RAC Foundation has responded to a call for evidence from HM Treasury regarding Vehicle Excise Duty (VED). Since 2001 the ongoing level of VED payable has been based on emissions bands. However,
  • Transport poverty 2018-19 12 Jun 2020

    The poorest households in the UK saw spending on buying and running a car rise in 2018-19. RAC Foundation analysis of data requested from the ONS suggests that around a million car-owning household
  • Substandard road bridges in Great Britain - 2019 data 28 Feb 2020

    The number of substandard road bridges managed by councils across Great Britain has fallen slightly over the past year, RAC Foundation analysis shows. Local authorities in England, Scotland and Wal
  • Transport poverty 2017-18 24 Apr 2019

    The very poorest car-owning households have seen their expenditure on motoring drop by 16% in a year. RAC Foundation analysis of data requested from the ONS suggests that just under a million car-o
  • Access to supermarket fuel 15 Apr 2019

    Almost four fifths (78%) of households with a car or van now have a big four supermarket filling station on their doorstep. Analysis by the RAC Foundation shows that of the 19.6 million homes in th
  • Council bridge maintenance backlog grows 07 Jan 2019

    The one-off cost of clearing the total maintenance backlog for the near 72,000 council-managed road bridges in Great Britain has increased by a third. Analysis by the RAC Foundation of data for the
  • Local roads funding and governance - TSC inquiry response 25 Oct 2018

    Government should make better use of locally-collected data on road conditions to help influence policy and funding in this area. That is one of the recommendations the RAC Foundation makes in its
  • Budget 2018 representation to HM Treasury 27 Sep 2018

    The RAC Foundation has urged the Chancellor to provide an appropriate level of investment for both strategic and local roads. In its representation to the Treasury ahead of the 2018 Budget to be he
  • Major Road Network - DfT consultation response 20 Mar 2018

    The RAC Foundation backs plans for major road network (MRN) that would create a tier of roads beyond the existing strategic road network (SRN) in England.
  • Transport poverty 2016-17 19 Mar 2018

    The very poorest car-owning households have seen their expenditure on motoring jump by 37% in a year. RAC Foundation analysis of previously unreleased data from the Office for National Statistics (
  • Substandard council bridges on the rise 19 Jan 2018

    Almost 3,500 council-maintained road bridges in Great Britain are substandard. Analysis of data for the 2016-17 financial year - received from 204 of the 207 local highway authorities in England, Scotland and Wales - found that 3,441 structures over 1.5m in span are not fit to carry the heaviest vehicles now seen on our roads, including lorries of up to 44 tonnes.
  • RACF contributes to winning Wolfson prize entry 14 Jul 2017

    An entry contributed to by the RAC Foundation has won the 2017 Wolfson Economics Prize. Gergely Raccuja receives £250,000 for his idea that a per-mile charge collected by insurers should
  • Motor insurance premiums for young drivers in the UK and Europe 06 Jul 2017

    Personal injury pay outs seventeen times higher than in some other European countries are forcing up the cost of insurance for drivers, particularly young ones. Meeting the long-term care costs of
  • Substandard road bridges 10 Mar 2017

    More than 3,000 council-maintained road bridges in Great Britain are substandard. Analysis of data received from 199 of the 207 local highway authorities in England, Scotland and Wales found that
  • Transport poverty 2015-16 02 Mar 2017

    New figures reveal that the poorest car-owning households in the UK remain deep in transport poverty. Official data analysed by the RAC Foundation suggests that around 960,000 of the very poorest car
  • Pothole compensation claims 2015/16 13 Oct 2016

    Drivers made at least 31,483 claims against councils for vehicle damage caused by poor road conditions in the last financial year. This equates to a claim being submitted every seventeen minutes in 2015/16.
  • Three-country road funding study 18 Jul 2016

    At a time when there are big changes in the way the English strategic road network is being managed – the creation of Highways England and the five-year road investment strategy – and
  • England's local roads: their condition and funding 24 Nov 2015

    Capital spending on local roads in England is at its lowest level for well over a decade. In the last two financial years £1.8 billion has been spent annually on capital works which include
  • Pothole compensation claims 2014/15 29 Sep 2015

    Almost 29,000 drivers made claims against councils across Great Britain for damage caused to their vehicles by potholes in the last financial year. Between them, the 200 (out of a total of 207) local
  • Readdressing the balance between petrol and diesel demand 16 Sep 2015

    Diesel is being sold as twice as fast as petrol and the mismatch is set to accelerate. By 2030 it is forecast that diesel will be selling four times as fast. This will leave the UK facing a growing
  • Funding our Roads: A better way 04 Jun 2015

    To protect the road investment programme from the short-term budgetary process of government the proceeds of VED should be ring-fenced to create a dedicated road fund. That is the argument of Brian
  • Transport policy, appraisal and decision-making 18 May 2015

    This paper by Tom Worsley and Peter Mackie investigates the interaction and tensions between transport policy, the appraisal process and decision-making.
  • Pothole compensation claims 2013/14 26 Jan 2015

    Councils receive pothole compensation claim every 11 minutes Almost 50,000 drivers made claims against councils across Great Britain for damage caused to their vehicles by potholes in the last financial year.
  • Transport expenditure, taxes and subsidies in GB 07 Nov 2014

    Road users are now paying four times more money to the Chancellor in motoring taxation than is being spent by the government on the roads.
  • Roads to reform 26 Feb 2014

    In the second half of 2013 the government published a series of documents which, taken together, constitute a significant change in policy towards the strategic road network.
  • Road scheme audit 26 Jun 2013

    On the eve of the comprehensive spending review the latest RAC Foundation audit of English road building showed that progress has been made by government in improving capacity.
  • The economics of road maintenance 19 Jun 2013

    The RAC Foundation and the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT) jointly commissioned this research to help better understand the wider effects of local
  • Local Road Maintenance (think piece) 12 Dec 2012

    This document attempts to draw together a picture of recent trends in maintenance activity and spending on local authority roads in England and Wales, and how this might develop in future.
  • Fuel for thought 15 May 2012

    Future governments face a relentless decline in the tax income they receive from fuel duty and VED. This is despite predicted growth in traffic.
  • A fairer deal? Funding strategic roads 29 Nov 2011

    We have a problem. Our roads are filling up and there is neither the plan nor the resources to deal with it.
  • Providing and funding strategic roads 07 Nov 2011

    Almost one hundred high-value road schemes that could be implemented relatively quickly and contribute to the growth agenda are sitting on the shelf waiting for funds.
  • Intelligent fuel duty (think piece) 02 Nov 2011

    In this discussion paper Phil Carey - a former senior civil servant at the DfT - outlines one possible component of reform of motoring taxation which would increase fairness whilst at the same time
  • Moving on (think piece) 31 Oct 2011

    Brian Wadsworth is a former senior civil servant at the Department for Transport. He is currently a director of the Road Ahead Group.
  • The acceptability of road pricing 04 May 2011

    For many politicians it is the last transport taboo. Road pricing, road user charging, Pay As You Go driving - call it what you will - is all but off the coalition's radar.
  • Governing and paying for England's roads 30 Jun 2010

    More, people, more traffic, more congestion, less money for maintenance and capital investment.
  • Crisis? What crisis? The 1970s' energy shock 16 Oct 2009

    Sky-high petrol prices. An attempt by Government to get motorists out of their cars. A political push for drivers to use an alternative fuel.
  • Lower income drivers 28 Sep 2009

    For those households with one or more cars, an average of 14 per cent of income is spent on motoring. For lower income families the figure is even higher.
  • Rates of return 19 Jun 2009

    At a time when every penny counts more than ever, are taxpayers getting the best value for money for each pound spent on transport projects?
  • Roads administration 10 Jun 2009

    The strategic road network - the country's motorways and major A roads - is run by the Highways Agency. It carries around a third of all road traffic, and two thirds of all heavy freight traffic.
  • The cost of motoring 05 Jun 2009

    How has the cost of buying a car changed over recent years? What about the cost of running it? How does motoring compare to public transport?
  • Roads and Reality 07 Nov 2008

    The Government has some tough decisions to make if it wants to avoid one thousand miles of severe congestion by 2041, according to this major RAC Foundation report.
  • Cost of transport 17 Mar 2008

    How has the cost of buying a car changed over recent years? What about the cost of running it? How does motoring compare to public transport?