I think you might be missing the point. At the moment a company gets permission to dig up the road. While they do estimate how long it will take there is almost no comeabck if they exceed that time so if they get another job they can leave the 1st one unfinished for weeks or months

With road "rental" it would be in their interest to complete the job asap - so reducing the amount of disruption to motorists

- it's the idea that they would be forced into working out-of-hours that scares me. Pay out to do the work during business hours, or work nights and bill the Local Authority more for the privilege. Councils will have to step sharp to re-negotiate every contract with the utilities companies; and they will have to do the same with their contractors, or Joe Public gets reamed again.

I guess then it comes down to which is the lesser of two evils

The work being done at night (Say) when there is little traffic so keeping the roads flowing at rush hours (but costing more)
or
Work done during the day esp at rush hour, so causing delays but being slightly cheaper

If they could just organise things so that when a hole is dug all of the companies wishing to lay cables actually laid them at the same frakin time.

believe it or not
the defunct GLC with red ken as leader made all utilities pay for road repairs if they dug the roads up
the utilities soon got together so all repairs were done at the same time thus reducing costs

sadly the tories (who like cost cutting) abolished the GLC and left it to the free market, ho hum ...

Yet another failed Tory policy.

Tax: The Mayor both collects and spends an unprecedented level of Londoner’s money
with the GLA precept up 147% and government grants up 41% in real terms.
Due to the increase in the precept Londoners are now paying £289 more in council tax
than other city dwellers in the UK. This is despite the GLA now receiving tax payer
grants worth £2,000 per household.
London Underground: While the population growth makes for record passenger levels
individual Londoners are starting to use the Tube less. This is caused by increased delays
(up 14%), more overcrowding (up 8%) and higher fares (up 17% on average) since Ken
took control.
London Bus network: Bus speeds have declined despite fewer vehicles being on
London’s roads. Meanwhile the subsidy for the bus network has grown to £212 per
London household, up 71% over the last five years.
Transport for London: As wages have spiralled the operating loss of Transport for
London has worsened. Losses now eat a bigger part of the annual subsidy, meaning a
30% cut in funds left for capital investment.
The growing wage bill has added £300m to TfL’s bottom line over the last five years. TfL
employs 232 people paid more than £100k per year. By contrast the Home Office had
43 people paid this much. The Treasury has just 7 such earners.
The congestion charge: The congestion charge has failed to reduce congestion. 99%
of its revenues have gone on costs so far. It has cost London £930m so far – and raised
only £10m for investment in public transport.
The Metropolitan Police: While the budget is up 81% since Ken took over, police
numbers are up only 20%. Violent crime is on the increase too, up 17% since the Mayor
took over. Meanwhile the Met compares operationally very poorly to a peer group of
similar forces.
The GLA itself. Staff numbers are up 83% since the first full year of the GLA, with the
fastest growth in the marketing department. Including TfL and the other bodies
Livingstone controls, 173 press officers now work for the Mayor.

Good job all those Labour policies (1997-2010) have led us to a land of opportunity and social justice for all....oh wait..

A resounding success.. trebles all round!!!!

Yes but they were following conservative Neoliberal policies and they were crap as well.

I want both parties to move back to the centre not leaving the Liberals as the only left leaning party.

The fact that the Tories are so far to the right now make them a wasted vote as far as I am concerned.