Britain’s pothole plague will take £14billion and 11 years to fix, damning report reveals
Britain’s pothole plague will cost £14 billion and 11 years to fix, damning report reveals
- There were 8,000 fewer miles of roads classified as ‘good’ compared to last year
- One in nine miles of local road is now in ‘poor condition’
- Shortages of pothole repair budgets by local authorities have reached a peak
The cost of clearing the UK’s pit backlog has reached an all-time high of £14bn – almost £1.5bn more than last year, a report showed yesterday.
According to a study by the Asphalt Industry Alliance, it would take local authorities 11 years to repair every crumbling road in England and Wales, up from nine years in 2022.
Last year, the trade association found it would cost councils £12.64 billion to plug all the potholes, but since then the repair bill has risen 11 percent to £14.02 billion.
The Daily Mail is campaigning to end the country’s pothole plague, which is costing motorists millions in repair costs and endangering cyclists’ lives.
Overall, the AIA found there were 8,000 miles less road classified as “good” compared to last year, a drop of four percent. And one in every nine miles of local road is now in “bad shape” and likely to need maintenance in the next 12 months.
The cost of clearing the UK’s pit backlog has reached a record high of £14bn – almost £1.5bn more than last year, a report revealed. In the photo: a car driving through a pothole
Despite the deteriorating state of the country’s roads, only 1.4 million potholes were closed in 2022/3, up from 1.7 million in the previous year. The AIA’s annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey found that shortfalls in local authority pothole repair budgets had reached an all-time high.
Municipalities in England and Wales said they received only two-thirds of what they needed during the current financial year to prevent further deterioration of local roads, the ALARM survey found.
Meanwhile, compensation paid for accidents and damage caused by poorly maintained roads has risen from £8.9m to £11.6m – despite the number of claims made falling.
This may be due to costly claims filed in previous years, along with an increase in repair costs due to high inflation and supply shortages.
Last week Chancellor Jeremy Hunt pledged to set aside an additional £200m for councils to spend on pothole repairs in a boost to the Mail’s campaign.
But industry experts, campaigners and politicians warned that more money is needed to tackle the scourge.
Rick Green, chair of the AIA, said: ‘Potholes and the condition of our local roads remain important issues for the public and the Chancellor has acknowledged this somewhat in his spring budget.
“But the additional £200 million one-off payment for local roads in England, while welcome, is simply not enough. It represents about 20 per cent of the average shortfall in English local authorities’ annual budgets and will do little to improve overall structural conditions and halt further deterioration.’
The Daily Mail is campaigning to end the country’s pothole plague, which is costing motorists millions in repair costs and endangering cyclists’ lives
Tory MP Greg Smith, who sits on the House of Commons transport committee, added: “We’ve seen decades and decades of patchwork repairs and the reality is that patchwork doesn’t work and we need to resurface Britain’s roads.”
David Renard, transport spokesperson for the Local Government Association, said: ‘Councils work tirelessly to restore our local roads, which are the foundation of our economy.
“To improve the condition of our roads, the government should provide an increase in funding for municipalities, including meeting new inflationary pressures.
“This would help municipalities focus on long-term investment in existing roads, preventive maintenance and reducing potholes in the first place, which are more expensive to repair.”