Pothole backlog in England and Wales soars to £17bn due to lack of funding

More than £17 billion needs to be spent to solve Britain’s pothole crisis, according to new figures released by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA).

In its annual Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance survey report, the AIA also found that more than half of the local roads in England and Wales – around 106,000 miles – have less than 15 years’ life left. Of these, 34,600 miles may only have five years’ life left.

Alarmingly, roads are only resurfaced, on average, once every 93 years.

This comes after over £20bn was spent repairing roads over the last decade, with £137.4 million being spent on filling almost two million potholes, but there is little to show for it. According to the survey, which reaches out to local authorities responsible for roads in England, London and Wales, almost all of them reported that there had been no improvement in their local network over the last year.

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Just 1.5% of local roads were resurfaced in 2024, and the AIA estimates that 12% are likely to need some form of maintenance in the next year.

Poor road conditions have been blamed on the inefficient structure of funding, which sees local authorities attempt to quickly remedy the situation with short-term cash injections followed by long periods of cuts and underfunding.

“There needs to be a complete change in mindset away from short-term to longer term funding commitments,” said AIA Chair, David Giles. 

“Local authorities do their best with the resources available. Nevertheless, they have told us they need their budgets to more than double for the next five to 10 years if they are going to be able to address the backlog of repairs.”

The survey revealed that an extra £7.4m in funding for each authority last year would have been required to reach targets for road conditions and maintain them for the future.

The AIA is calling on the Government to address funding for local roads in its Comprehensive Spending Review, which is due to conclude in spring, with a minimum five-year plan and a substantial increase in investment.

Local Government Association Transport Spokesperson, Cllr Adam Hug, said: “The funding increase in the last Budget was positive and must now be followed by a commitment in the Spending Review to a long-term financial package to tackle this backlog and put it into reverse.”

It’s evident that short-term funding and quick fixes such as filling potholes only provides a temporary improvement for road conditions, with roads continuing to be damaged by cold weather and heavy traffic year-on-year. Increased investment into long-term solutions and completely resurfacing roads is needed for the future reliability of the network.

“The lack of investment in our roads is a false economy as it just leads to bigger repair costs in the future – something local authorities can ill-afford,” said RAC Head of Policy, Simon Williams. “In the meantime, all road users continue to pay the price with uncomfortable journeys, avoidable breakdowns and repair bills that they only incur because potholes are so bad.” 

He added: “We’re committed to working closely with the road maintenance sector, including the AIA, to get the message to government that councils need to have certainty of resources to look after one of their most valuable assets – the roads millions of us use every day.”

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