For the first time, every council in England must publish how many potholes they have filled or face losing cash.
Local authorities in England will start to receive their share of the Government’s £1.6 billion highway maintenance funding from next month (April), including an extra £500 million, which is enough to fill seven million potholes a year, according to the Department for Transport (DfT).
However, the Government says that to qualify for the full amount, all councils in England must from today (Monday, March 24) publish annual progress reports and prove public confidence in their work.
Local authorities who fail to meet these conditions will see 25% of the uplift (£125m in total) withheld.
The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, has also unveiled £4.8bn funding for National Highways to deliver critical road schemes and maintain motorways and major A-roads.
The £4.8bn for National Highways includes a £1.3bn investment to keep the network in good repair and £1.8bn for National Highways’ daily operations, as well as £1.3bn for essential improvement schemes to unlock growth and housing.
Alexander said: “After years of neglect we’re tackling the pothole plague, building vital roads and ensuring every penny is delivering results for the taxpayer.
“The public deserves to know how their councils are improving their local roads, which is why they will have to show progress or risk losing 25% of their £500m funding boost.”
To ensure councils are taking action, they must now publish reports on their websites by June 30, 2025, detailing how much they are spending, how many potholes they have filled, what percentage of their roads are in what condition, and how they are minimising streetworks disruption.
They will also be required to show how they are spending more on long-term preventative maintenance programmes and that they have robust plans for the wetter winters the country is experiencing – making potholes worse.
By the end of October, councils must also show they are ensuring communities have their say on what work they should be doing, and where.
The public can also help battle back against pothole ridden roads by reporting them to their local council, via a dedicated online portal.
Edmund King, AA president and member of the Pothole Partnership, said: “Getting councils to show value for money before getting full funding is a big step in the right direction, as it will encourage a more concerted attack on the plague of potholes.
“At the same time, local authorities can share best practice, so others can learn what new innovations and planned maintenance techniques have worked for them.”
Figures from the RAC show drivers encounter an average of six potholes per mile in England and Wales, and pothole damage to cars costs an average £600 to fix.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “The broken roads we inherited are not only risking lives but also cost working families, drivers and businesses hundreds - if not thousands of pounds – in avoidable vehicle repairs.
“British people are bored of seeing their politicians aimlessly pointing at potholes with no real plan to fix them. That ends with us. We’ve done our part by handing councils the cash and certainty they need - now it’s up to them to get on with the job, put that money to use and prove they’re delivering for their communities.”
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Just last week, the Asphalt Industry Alliance published its Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (Alarm) survey report, which shoed that local roads are, on average, being resurfaced once every 93 years, with the backlog of carriageway repairs in England and Wales reaching new heights at almost £17bn.
Responding to the Government’s announcement of an extra £500 million for councils’ road maintenance budgets and requirements to prove progress to release some of this funding,
Cllr Adam Hug, transport spokesperson for the Local Government Association, said:
“The additional £500 million will help start to address the previously ever-growing backlog of local road repairs, which now stands at nearly £17 billion and could take more than a decade to fix.“Councils already spend more than they receive from central government on tackling potholes and repairing our roads.
“However, it’s in everyone’s interests to ensure that public money is well spent. This includes the Government playing its full part by using the Spending Review to ensure that councils receive sufficient, long-term funding certainty, so they can focus their efforts on much more cost-effective, preventative measures rather than reactively fixing potholes, which is more expensive.”
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