Will there be 30 km/h speed limits on roads near you? Councils are proposing blanket restrictions that could impact MILLIONS of motorists

Chances are your local roads are about to get slower, as councils across the UK look to introduce new speed limits.

From Scotland to Birmingham, many local authorities are considering blanket 20mph restrictions in urban areas.

If consultations show that the speed limit should be reduced to 32 km/h, millions of residents will be affected.

Proposed reductions are likely to prove deeply unpopular after the Welsh government was forced to reverse its 20mph policy earlier this year amid a huge backlash.

So, which municipalities are looking at lowering speed limits, and when?

And how much of the UK is already limited to 20mph? We take a look.

Which councils in Britain are considering introducing a 30km/h speed limit?

The latest council to propose a citywide speed limit of 20mph is Birmingham. If the council’s plans go ahead, Birmingham will become a standard 20mph zone.

The proposal will be discussed by the Labour-controlled council on Tuesday. If an agreement is reached, 1.1 million residents will be subject to 20mph speed limits on residential and high traffic roads.

The municipality has already asked the Ministry of Transport for permission to install 32 km/h signs around the city limits, but has not yet received a response.

Road safety campaigner Rod King, founder of 1920s Plenty For Us, told The Sunday Times: ‘What Birmingham is actually doing, rather than doing it by road, is saying, ‘When you come into this city it’s standard 32 kilometers per hour’.

‘It’s about process and signage and not about policy; it is sensible. It makes it a simple process and cheaper to implement.”

Much of Birmingham’s decision could be cost-saving, as avoiding installing 20mph signs on every street would save the council an estimated £12 million.

The authority effectively declared itself bankrupt in September with the need to find £300 million in savings.

Scotland also wants to impose general restrictions of 30 km/h.

Earlier this year, Scotland decided to lower the speed limit on most urban roads to 20 miles per hour. This is expected to be introduced in 2025 as part of the drive to halve the number of people killed or seriously injured on Scotland’s roads by 2030.

Lower limits already apply in parts of Edinburgh, Glasgow, the Highlands and the Scottish borders.

At the end of November, 32 councils were given £4 million to spend on 20mph speed limits, as part of the £14 million the Scottish Government has committed to improving road safety in those 32 councils this financial year.

The results of a public meeting on 20mph speed limits will soon be published by the Scottish Parliament.

How much of Britain already drives 20 miles per hour?

According to campaign group 20’s Plenty for Us, more than 1 in 3 people (28 million) live in local authorities with a speed limit of 20 miles per hour.

The organisation’s interactive map shows areas where local authorities have already committed to, or are in the process of implementing, 30km/h limits as a standard.

England has no national policy, but many counties, towns and cities including Hull, Bristol, Norwich, Chichester (West Sussex) and Tonbridge (Kent) and 52 percent of London’s borough-controlled roads have 20mph restrictions entered.

Will Labor reach 20mph in England?

Labor made no comment on 30km/h speed limits in its manifesto, but when asked directly by Auto Express before England went to the polls, Labor MP Louise Haigh said: ‘It should be up to local communities to set speed limits determine their local roads. , not politicians in Westminster.

‘In certain areas, such as around schools, 30 km/h limits are welcome, but those decisions must be made locally. That is why a Labor government will not introduce blanket 20mph zones.’

Louise Haigh became Transport Secretary before resigning last week and being replaced by Swindon South MP Heidi Alexander.

While Transport Minister Haigh continued to give the green light to local councils wanting to introduce safety schemes including 20mph zones.

In August, Haigh said on the ‘Streets Ahead’ podcast: ‘These types of decisions (road safety plans such as 20mph zones) should absolutely be made at a local level by communities and not dictated or instigated by the centre.

“Local authorities will have my full support in rolling out schemes.”

Whether her successor implements 20mph zones remains to be seen, but the new Transport Secretary is known to be in favor of 32mph restrictions: when Ms Alexander served as London’s Deputy Mayor for Transport (from 2018 to 2021) she oversaw on the rollout of 20mph zones in the capital.

Introduction of the 30km/h speed limit in Wales: why did the government have to make a U-turn?

Wales introduced the blanket 30km/h ban on restricted roads in September 2023, but reversed the decision in July 2024, after costs of £32 million.

Wales’ transport secretary Ken Skates admitted the policy was so unpopular that even his own family had signed the petition against it.

Conservatives in the Senedd strongly opposed it, calling it a ‘waste of time and resources’.

The petition to abolish the 30 km/h speed limit was the largest petition ever in Wales, with 470,000 signatures.

Will Scotland also introduce an 80 km/h limit?

Scotland has announced a new proposal to help it achieve its goal of halving the number of people killed or seriously injured on its roads by 2030: limiting car speeds from 60mph to 50mph on single-lane A-roads.

While cars would have to reduce their speed by 16 km/h, trucks weighing more than 7.5 tonnes could increase their speed from 60 km/h to 80 km/h on single carriageways and from 80 km/h to 100 km/hour on dual carriageways.

The changes are the final part of a public consultation on proposed changes to speed limits in Scotland.

The National Speed ​​Management Review consultation will run until Wednesday 5 March 2025 and a series of engagement sessions will take place in early 2025. The findings will be published in the summer of 2025.

Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “We must never lose sight of the fact that every death on our roads is one too many. These proposed changes represent a crucial step towards achieving national casualty reduction targets, and I urge everyone to take part in the consultation and help shape the future of road safety in Scotland shaping.’

But the Scottish Conservatives described the plan as ‘a ridiculous measure aimed at demonizing motorists in rural areas who rely on the use of a car’.