Organisation: Road Safety Foundation
Date of Publication: July 2026
Uploaded to Knowledge Centre: 8 July 2026
An established government road safety programme will prevent an estimated 2,700 deaths and serious injuries over 20 years on some of England’s most dangerous A‑roads – delivering £1.25 billion in benefits to society from a £195 million investment, a new report says.
The Department for Transport’s Safer Roads Fund, launched in 2016, targets safety improvements on high‑risk local authority A‑roads using iRAP star ratings, an internationally recognised measure of how safe a road’s design is. The programme focuses on roads with poor safety performance and the greatest potential to reduce serious harm.
Over a 20‑year appraisal period, the Fund is estimated to deliver a benefit–cost ratio of 5.3, meaning that for every £1 invested, society benefits by around £5.30 through avoided deaths and injuries.
Instead of focusing solely on where there have been collisions in the past, the Safer Roads Fund uses detailed assessments of road design and risk to identify danger in advance – tackling unsafe layouts, junctions and roadside features before lives are lost.
Alongside physical improvements on 100 high‑risk routes, the programme has also driven a major shift in how road safety is delivered, building Safe System capability within local highway authorities and supporting a move away from reactive responses towards proactive risk management.
The Fund has focused heavily on rural A‑roads, where safety risk can be high and alternative routes limited. Its use of iRAP star ratings is now informing wider national approaches to road safety.
The new report concludes that, to support the new national road safety strategy, continued investment in proactive, evidence‑led programmes like the Safer Roads Fund will be critical to reducing deaths and serious injuries and achieving long‑term road safety goals.
Click the link below to access the full report:
https://roadsafetyfoundation.org/saving-lives-on-local-a-roads-safer-roads-fund-update/