Transport Insights

National Highways has told me that it is aiming to achieve the level of LED streetlight installation during the current year that would keep it (more or less) on track for one of its main decarbonisation targets.

I wrote last week that the company installed 12,745 LED lights during 2024-25, in pursuit of a target of 70% LED street lighting by 2027 in its Net Zero Highways plan.

An early upgrade on the M62, showing sodium (left) vs LED lights

While this took it to 51%, compared to 40% a year earlier, which appears to be the rate of change required to hit the 2027 target, I noted that published documents are unclear about what will happen over the next two years.

There is no mention of the issue in the company’s settlement for the current, interim year and the clearest commitment to taking it forward is an unquantified referent its delivery plan for the year to “delivering our LED lighting programme to support our carbon reduction commitments”.

But a National Highways spokesperson has told me:

We are committed to our target of ensuring 70 per cent of the road network is upgraded with LED lighting by 2027 and we are aiming to install a further 10,000 during 2025-26.

However, upgrading LED lighting is dependent on a number of factors, including severe weather, the availability of road space/local highway diversion routes and the condition of the existing lighting assets on the network.

Until the 2026-31 road investment strategy (RIS 3) is published, it remains unclear what the company will be funded to do beyond 2027. The draft RIS 3, which lacks detail all round, merely says that the company will “roll out LED lighting across the network” but without a target date for completion.

More detail might be expected from National Highways’ draft strategic business plan, which is the next stage in the process.

In a written parliamentary answer last week, Department for Transport minister Simon Lightwood confirmed that the company had produced the draft plan, but it is of course part of a process going on behind the scenes.