{"id":62887,"date":"2015-10-15T10:30:16","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T10:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=1124ea12366721331c971d2cd58b1e07"},"modified":"2015-10-15T10:30:16","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T10:30:16","slug":"speech-highways-magazine-excellence-awards-2015-rewarding-the-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=62887","title":{"rendered":"Speech: Highways Magazine Excellence Awards 2015: rewarding the best"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n

Thank you.\t\t<\/p>\n

It is an honour to speak to you this evening.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s great to see so many deserving nominees.<\/p>\n

You might think that, sometimes, the public forgets how important your work is.<\/p>\n

But I can tell you: even before the Prime Minister asked me to be the Roads Minister, my postbag contained more letters about roads than about anything else.<\/p>\n

Any MP will tell you the same.<\/p>\n

Importance of highways industry<\/h2>\n

Because your work is the foundation of national prosperity.<\/p>\n

It allows people and products to get across the country.<\/p>\n

It connects towns and cities and families and friends.<\/p>\n

When our roads aren\u2019t working, Britain can\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

So the country is fortunate that among the men and women who maintain our road network are some of the most hard-working, skilled, and, frankly, most important professionals in the country.<\/p>\n

Whether you are out painting the road markings that keep drivers on course; working to make the case for local road investment; working to design new road systems for the ever-increasing number of cars on our roads; or working on any other of the thousands of jobs required for road construction and maintenance, right here in this room tonight, we have the best of the very best.<\/p>\n

We are spending more on roads<\/h2>\n

There has never been a better time to work in our highways industry.<\/p>\n

For years, the industry gave successive governments a clear message.<\/p>\n

You said: Not enough money is being spent on Britain\u2019s roads.<\/p>\n

Driver numbers are up.<\/p>\n

And with the money that\u2019s being spent, the quality of the network is going down.<\/p>\n

Successive governments heard that message, but they were not always listening.<\/p>\n

The result was that by 2010, the World Economic Forum ranked Britain\u2019s roads 35th in the world for quality.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not surprising when you consider that in the last 25 years, the French ordered and built more than two and a half thousand miles of new motorway.<\/p>\n

While we built just 300 miles.<\/p>\n

So that is why I am glad to say today: at last you have a government that has been listening.<\/p>\n

We agree with you that we need to spend more on our roads.<\/p>\n

So that is exactly what we are doing.<\/p>\n

We are spending over \u00a32 billion on local schemes.<\/p>\n

\u00a36 billion to maintain the local network.<\/p>\n

And an unprecedented \u00a315 billion on our strategic network.<\/p>\n

We will get 1,300 miles of new motorway lanes.<\/p>\n

New surfaces for 80% of our most important existing roads.<\/p>\n

Better links to our airports and our sea ports.<\/p>\n

In total, over 100 major schemes, including widening key links such as the A1 north of Newcastle, and the A303 to the South West, and a new, faster route on the A14 from Cambridge.<\/p>\n

On the local network we are funding schemes such as the new Mersey Gateway Bridge, and new bypasses around Lancaster, Hastings, and the south of Manchester<\/p>\n

Altogether, it\u2019s by far the biggest investment in our roads for a generation.<\/p>\n

And it means that the highways industry is a thriving growth industry.<\/p>\n

For you, it means new opportunities.<\/p>\n

New training.<\/p>\n

New equipment.<\/p>\n

And thousands of new jobs.<\/p>\n

But I can\u2019t finish without mentioning that, by a happy coincidence, at midnight tonight we are launching a new, free Highways Maintenance Efficiency Programme online asset management training system<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It will help you develop some of the skills you need to maintain our nation\u2019s highways.<\/p>\n

So do take a look at it.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

But of course, and this is the real point – without you, our road-building revolution will not happen.<\/p>\n

If this country is to continue to prosper, and if businesses are to continue to move their goods, we need your talent, and your dedication.<\/p>\n

Looking at the nominations tonight, there\u2019s no shortage of that in this room.<\/p>\n

This government is backing you all the way.<\/p>\n

So enjoy this evening.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve earnt it.<\/p>\n

You deserve it.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s a lot to celebrate.<\/p>\n

Thank you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government is spending more on roads, so there has never been a better time to work in our highways industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}