Lane rental scheme

Lane rental allows a highway authority to charge up to £2,500 per day for works on the busiest roads at the busiest times

Hampshire County Council is developing a lane rental scheme aimed at reducing traffic disruption by charging works promoters a daily fee to undertake works on the public highway. The fees would apply to all works undertaken and would encourage works to be completed as quickly as possible, or rescheduled to avoid the peak traffic periods. Such a scheme would apply to the most strategic roads within Hampshire.

Updates on the progress of the development and implementation of the scheme will be posted on this page.

On 23 June 2025, the County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways and Passenger Transport reviewed detailed proposals for the introduction of a lane rental scheme, which would charge a daily fee for the duration of roadworks thereby encouraging contractors to complete works quickly or adopt less intrusive methods of working.

Details of the initial proposal and the 23 June decision

Further information on the background and legislation of lane rental schemes (GOV.UK)

First Consultation Summer 2025

In summer 2025 the County Council undertook a consultation on its proposals for a lane rental scheme. Over the autumn and winter the comments from the consultation were considered in detail. The Consultation summary document is attached below;

As a result of the consultation appropriate revisions to the scheme and the schedule of roads affected were made. A revised scheme was submitted to the DfT in March 2026 for their consideration.

Second Consultation Summer 2026

As a result of discussions with the DfT additional technical amendments, have been made and now a second consultation is to be undertaken on the revised scheme. The second consultation is to be more focussed and will close on the 11 September 2026. An online map showing the revised lane rental streets and timings can be found at https://bit.ly/hampshire-lane-rental-consultation. The appropriate consultation documents are included below;

Hampshire County Council Permit Scheme

Details of the County Councils existing permit scheme and evaluations of the scheme can be found on our Permit scheme web page.