Lane Rental Schemes Approved for Seven Councils
If you have ever sat on a delayed bus or in slow traffic and wondered why roadworks always seem to happen at the worst moment, this new Order is aimed at that frustration. According to the Statutory Instrument published on legislation.gov.uk, from 27 April 2026 seven highway authorities will be allowed to run lane rental schemes and charge for certain works that occupy busy roads at busy times. The formal title is The Street Works (Charges for Occupation of the Highway) Order 2026. Using powers in the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, the government is giving those authorities permission to charge when a street is taken up by works in places and periods classed as traffic-sensitive.
Lane rental can sound like a fee for using the road, but that is not what this is. The charge is linked to street works occupying the highway, usually when an organisation needs cones, barriers or a closure in place. It is also a daily charge, so the longer the works sit there, the more pressure there is to justify the timing and finish promptly. The legal note makes clear that these schemes are meant for traffic-sensitive locations at traffic-sensitive times. In plain English, that means the busiest stretches of road at the busiest parts of the day, when disruption spreads quickly through buses, deliveries, school runs and ordinary journeys.
The seven authorities named in the Order are Buckinghamshire Council, North Yorkshire Council, Oxfordshire County Council, and the London boroughs of Camden, Enfield, Lambeth and Merton. They become approved authorities for the purposes of the 2012 regulations once this Order comes into force on 27 April 2026. The Order was made on 16 April 2026 and signed for the Department for Transport by Simon Lightwood, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State. One small legal wrinkle is worth noticing: the Order extends to England and Wales, but every authority approved here is in England, so the practical effect of this document is focused on those seven English areas.
Who pays is an important question, because legal wording can make that blurry. This is not a new charge on residents for driving through roadworks. It is a charge that can be required from the bodies carrying out certain street works in the highway, under the rules already set by the Street Works (Charges for Occupation of the Highway) (England) Regulations 2012. **What this means:** councils have been given a stronger way to push for better timing and better planning. If works are booked on a road that is especially sensitive at rush hour, the authority can use daily charges to encourage a quicker job, a different time slot, or a less disruptive approach.
The Order also leaves room for flexibility. It says the approved authorities may reduce or waive the daily charge, and each lane rental scheme includes guidance on when a discount can apply. That matters because not every job is equally avoidable. Emergency works, difficult repairs and jobs with clear public benefit do not all fit neatly into the same box. So this is best understood as a traffic management tool rather than a simple penalty. The aim, as set out in the explanatory note, is to control how works are carried out in specified places and at specified times, not to stop road repairs from happening at all.
The phrase Approved Authority is one of those legal labels that can hide the real story. Before this Order, these seven councils were outside that category for the purpose of the 2012 regulations. After this Order, they are inside it. That single change is what gives their local lane rental schemes legal force under the national rules. It is also worth saying what this Order does not do. It does not automatically put charges on every road in each area, and it does not rewrite the whole system for street works across England. Each authority can act only in line with the scheme it submitted and the Secretary of State approved.
For local authorities, the hoped-for result is fewer badly timed works on roads where delay causes the most knock-on problems. For you as a resident, student or commuter, the promise is simple enough: fewer cones and closures in the places where a hold-up does the most damage to daily life, even if the reality will depend on how firmly each council uses the power. The explanatory note says copies of each scheme can be inspected at the councils' offices and on their websites. That is a helpful reminder for any reader trying to make sense of official documents. The headline law tells you who now has the power to charge; the local scheme tells you how that power will work on the ground. If the legal title feels forbidding, the plain-English version is this: from 27 April 2026, seven councils can charge for certain roadworks on traffic-sensitive roads at traffic-sensitive times, with the aim of cutting disruption when the network is under the most pressure.