# English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026, Paragraph 2: Highways Act 1980: agreements for doing certain works

Extent: E+W

(1) Section 8 of the Highways Act 1980 (agreements between local highway authorities and strategic highways companies for doing of certain works) is amended in accordance with this paragraph.
(2) In subsection (1), after “local highways authorities” insert “, combined authorities, combined county authorities”.
(3) After subsection (1) insert—
“(1A) If a combined authority or combined county authority is a party to an agreement under subsection (1), the agreement may make or include provision for or in relation to the construction, reconstruction, alteration, improvement or maintenance of a highway for which a constituent council of that authority are the highway authority even if that constituent council is not a party to the agreement (a “relevant constituent council”) (whether that is instead of, or in addition to, such provision about any highway for which a party to the agreement are the highway authority).
(1B) A combined authority or combined county authority may not enter into an agreement under this section unless the authority has obtained the consent of any upper-tier constituent council or councils in whose area the authority would exercise functions under the agreement.”
(4) In subsection (2), after “parties to the agreement” insert “, or a relevant constituent council,”.
(5) In subsection (3)—
(a) after “another highway authority” insert “or a combined authority or combined county authority”;
(b) for “other highway authority” substitute “other authority”.
(6) After subsection (4) insert—
“(4A) A combined authority or combined county authority may not enter into an agreement under this section with a council unless their areas adjoin each other.”
(7) After subsection (5) insert—
“(6) In this section—
“combined authority”, “combined county authority” and “constituent council” have the same meanings as in section 6;
“relevant constituent council” has the meaning given in subsection (1A);
“upper-tier constituent council” has the same meaning as in section 6.”

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2026/23/schedule/8/paragraph/2 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/english-devolution-and-community-empowerment-act-2026/schedule-8/paragraph-2
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.