Councils have spent £42m on 20mph speed limits in three years - only for many to be reversed

Councils have forked out £41.9million introducing 20mph speed limits since 2023, new data reveals.

The rate of spending is increasing, too, with £16.7million spent in 2025-26 alone – the highest total of the last three years.

But despite the sizable outlay, some councils are already undoing the changes, with hundreds of roads reverting to the higher limit enforced previously.

The figures, obtained by Confused.com through a Freedom of Information request, show that at least 174 roads have returned to 30mph restrictions. The vast majority are in Wales, where the national 20mph default drew significant public opposition.

Flintshire in Wales was the biggest culprit, reversing the 20mph limit on almost 50 roads despite spending over £1.79million introducing the lower speed restrictions in the first place.

It comes after MPs were told this summer to ramp up efforts to make 20mph the 'recommended' speed limit on all roads in urban areas in England and consider tougher restrictions on drivers by making automatic speed limiters mandatory in cars.

More than 30 per cent of roads in Britain’s towns and cities are subject to a 20mph speed limit, research by Insight Warehouse found last year.

Each country implements 20mph limits differently: in Wales, they became the default on most roads in towns and cities in 2023, while Scotland is rolling them out more gradually, council by council, under a national strategy introduced in 2024.

England has no national policy, so limits appear only where individual councils choose to implement them, as areas including Cornwall, Oxfordshire and several London boroughs have done.

In Northern Ireland, 20mph limits mainly apply to roads outside schools for now, with a recent public consultation on wider residential use having run from January to April 2026.

The report found that 92 per cent of roads where 20mph limits have been reversed are in Wales.

Flintshire ditched 20mph zones on 47 roads – more than any other region across the country. The Isle of Anglesey overturned 27 and Newport scrapped 21 of its 20mph limits.

Outside Wales, only a handful of councils have started to restore higher limits on individual roads.

Perth and Kinross (Scotland) has done so on eight roads, and Southampton (England) on four.

Which councils have spent the most on 20mph limits?

These ten councils spent the most introducing 20mph roads between the financial years 2023-24 and 2025-26.

In the last three years, Hertfordshire Council has spent the most converting roads to 20mph limits between 2023-24 and 2025-26. It shelled out an eye-watering £4,644,924.

Oxfordshire is second, allocating £3,029,200 of funding to new schemes over the same period.

Cornwall shelled out the third-largest sum, with £2,664,026 set aside for new schemes.

Neath Port Talbot, Aberdeenshire, Cardiff, Swansea and Flintshire each spent between £1.8million and £2.1million..

Redbridge and Newham rounded out the top ten biggest spenders, pumping £1,285,000 and £1,245,187 respectively into 20mph schemes.

Which roads could get 20mph speed limits soon?

Many towns and cities are considering the introduction of 20mph zones, with roads in Bristol, Poole, Wokingham, Greenwich and parts of Scotland potentially being reduced.

Bristol drivers are facing the prospect of 20mph limits on 90 streets, including Bond Street and the A4 Bath Road, as the council looks to reduce road casualties.

The proposals cover 56 miles of road – around 5 per cent of Bristol’s road network – which account for a quarter of the city's serious and fatal casualties. A fifth of all casualties occur on those roads.

Councillors voted on the plans on Thursday. If approved, these streets will join the roughly 86 per cent of Bristol’s streets that already have 20mph limits, following earlier schemes introduced in 2010 and 2014, by next summer.

Residents in Wokingham, Berkshire, are being asked for their views on proposals to introduce a mix of 20mph and 30mph limits across five areas to improve road safety.

The two-month consultation will look at reducing speed limits across a town centre, village centres, residential areas and rural roads.

Meanwhile, Greenwich's proposals to introduce a boroughwide 20mph speed limit on council-managed roads progressed to statutory consultation last month.

Currently, 72 per cent of the borough’s roads already have a 20mph speed limit, but the proposals would create a blanket speed restriction for the rest of the council's roads.

Only A-roads and streets on Transport for London Red Routes would remain at their existing speed limits.