Introduction
Local highway authorities collect a significant amount of information.
They monitor road condition, maintenance activity, service costs, response times, customer contacts and progress against local plans. However, having more data does not automatically make it easier to answer the questions that matter most:
- Are our services performing well?
- How do our results compare with similar authorities?
- Are residents noticing the improvements we are making?
- Are resources being directed towards the right priorities?
- Can we demonstrate value for money?
The National Highways and Transport Network—the NHT Network—helps local authorities answer these questions by bringing together public feedback, performance measurement, benchmarking and collaboration.
Rather than looking at one dataset in isolation, the Network gives councils a structured way to measure, compare and improve their highways and transport services.
What is the NHT Network?
The NHT Network is a subscription-based benchmarking and service-improvement partnership for UK local authorities and their delivery partners. It provides independent resident research, performance frameworks, comparative data and opportunities for authorities to learn from one another.
Its purpose is not simply to produce reports. The Network is designed to help participating authorities understand what their results mean, identify where performance is strong or weak and use the evidence to support practical decisions.
Member authorities can use NHT information to monitor changes over time, compare themselves with relevant peers, prioritise investment, support business cases and communicate more clearly with councillors, senior leaders and residents.
Why highways benchmarking matters
A performance figure has limited value without context.
For example, knowing how much an authority spends on a particular service does not, by itself, show whether that service is efficient. A satisfaction score may indicate how residents feel, but it becomes more useful when the authority can compare it with previous years and with other councils.
Benchmarking adds this context. It allows a local authority to explore questions such as:
- Is our performance improving or declining?
- Are similar authorities experiencing the same pressures?
- Which councils achieve stronger outcomes in comparable circumstances?
- Are higher costs producing better quality or customer outcomes?
- Where should we investigate further?
The objective is not to create a simplistic league table. Local circumstances, network characteristics, funding arrangements and service models can differ considerably. Good benchmarking helps authorities ask better questions. It identifies patterns, highlights exceptions and creates a starting point for conversations about improvement.
More than a public satisfaction survey
The NHT Network is often associated with its Public Satisfaction Survey. Resident feedback is an important part of the Network, but it is only one part of the wider offer. NHT brings together three connected services:
Public Satisfaction Survey
The NHT Public Satisfaction Survey collects residents’ views about highways and transport services in participating local authority areas. It provides an independent customer perspective that authorities can review over time and compare with results from elsewhere.
The survey can help councils understand:
- Which services residents consider most important
- Where satisfaction is relatively strong or weak
- Whether public perceptions are changing
- How experiences differ between groups or locations
- Whether service changes are being recognised by the public
This information does not replace engineering or operational data. It complements it by showing how the service is experienced by the people who use the network.
CQC Efficiency Network
The CQC Efficiency Network helps authorities examine efficiency and value for money by considering cost alongside quality, customer outcomes and carbon impact. This is important because low expenditure does not necessarily mean good value, just as higher expenditure does not automatically lead to better outcomes. By examining these factors together, councils can develop a more balanced understanding of whether resources are being used effectively and where further investigation may be needed.
How the services work together
The greatest value comes from considering the three areas together. Imagine that an authority records relatively low resident satisfaction with road maintenance. The Public Satisfaction Survey identifies the customer concern. CQC benchmarking can then add information about cost, quality, efficiency and comparative performance.
Together, these perspectives can help the authority explore:
- What residents are experiencing
- What operational data says about the service
- How the authority compares with relevant peers
- Whether resources are producing the intended outcomes
- Which actions should be prioritised and monitored
This is more useful than responding to a single score without understanding the wider context. It also helps reduce the risk of making decisions based only on the information that is easiest to access.
Have a question about The NHT Survey? Please contact us.
