Utilities to be charged "rent" for roadworks.
 

English councils are to be allowed to charge utility companies a daily rate for road works on busy roads. This is after a successful trial in London. Companies can be charged up to £2500 per day for digging up a busy road.
Trials in London reduced roadworks by 50%.
It will avoid the issue of cable digging up the road this week, gas next week, electricity the week after and telephones the week after that. This is what happens regularly here in the UK.
They will all do the job together, split their "rent", and reduce congestion.

Councils to be allowed to charge for road closures - BBC News

You think? The skeptic in me says they'll go right on digging things up separately, and just pass on the increased cost to their customers.

That's not what happened in the London trial. They would have passed the costs on to their customers, but the various utilities did work together, reducing the congestion.

Sounds like a great idea! Now bring that here to the U.S., where you see "construction" everywhere, but no people around! When there are people around, there is ONE person working and 10+ people standing around watching. The problem is it is the government's own construction though.

I thought this would be about getting the utilities to pony up for the wear and tear from electric trucks.

Maybe they should be required to hand out 10 quid notes to drivers stuck in the traffic rather than paying the rent to the gub'ment.