Councils need to “get on” with fixing potholes, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer urged, as the government announced how it will allocate its £1.6bn budget for road maintenance.
Each local authority in England will receive a cut of the budget for the next financial year – which is £500m higher than the previous sum.
Some of this uplift is being held back “until authorities have shown that they are delivering”, the government said.
The increase, announced in the Budget in October, is estimated to fix an additional seven million potholes.
Each local authority in England can use the money to identify which roads are in most need of repair and deliver “immediate fixes”, the government said.
Allocations of the £1.6bn investment include:
- More than £327m for local authorities in the North West, North East, and Yorkshire and Humber
- More than £372m for local authorities in the East Midlands and West Midlands
- More than £244m for local authorities in the East of England
- More than £322m for local authorities in the South East and London
- More than £300m for local authorities in the South West
Transport is a devolved matter in the UK – so this budget only applies to England.
Announcing the figures, the Department for Transport (DfT) said it was holding back 25% of the £500m uplift as an incentive until authorities had shown that they were “delivering”.
The government would, it added, make sure authorities spent the money wisely and maintained roads to avoid further potholes.
The Local Government Association (LGA) welcomed the funding, but asked the government to reconsider its decision to withhold a quarter of the uplift.
It said councils needed “greater certainty” over the funding, and asked for greater long-term investment.
Figures from monitoring group RAC show drivers encounter an average of six potholes per mile in England, and face spending around £500 on vehicle repairs because of pothole damage.
Sir Keir Starmer said damaged roads could risk lives and cost families “hundreds if not thousands” on repairs.
He wants his government’s new focus to be on people’s daily frustrations. Potholes is perhaps the archetypal example of an issue that enrages many.
But it is down to local councils, not national government, to deliver these repairs.
The LGA suggested more than £16bn could be needed to fix the backlog in road repairs.
According to the RAC, the UK faces a “pothole epidemic”.
A pothole is a hole in a road surface caused by factors such as repeated traffic impact and water damage.
Depending on its size, it can cause significant damage to vehicles and pose a danger to motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.
The average cost of fixing a pothole is £72 in England, according to a report by the The Asphalt Industry Alliance.