Pothole crisis reaches boiling point as road repair costs soar to £17billion - 'Drivers pay the price'

One expert said it was not a surprise to councils that drivers continue to see potholes strewn across roads

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A staggering new report has found that the total cost to fill in all potholes across England and Wales would cost £17billion, despite a pothole being repaired every 18 seconds.

The latest Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey reports that a pothole has been filled every 18 seconds, every day, for 10 years, but billions of pounds are needed to repair the backlog.

One in every six miles of the local road network is reported to have less than five years of structural life remaining, potentially spelling chaos for motorists who use crucial road routes on a daily basis.

The ALARM report states that a one-time catch-up would take 12 years to complete, even though roads are only resurfaced, on average, once every 93 years.

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The latest ALARM report warns that it will cost almost £17billion to repair potholes across England and Wales

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David Giles, Chair of the Asphalt Industry Alliance, which commissions the ALARM survey, noted that more than £20billion has been spent on repairing potholes and maintaining carriageways across England and Wales in the last 10 years alone.

In last year's Autumn Statement, Labour pledged an additional £1.6billion to fill an additional one million potholes across England each year, after campaigning that there were more potholes on UK roads than there are craters on the moon.

Despite this, many experts say the Government needs to do more or drivers will continue to experience the scourge of potholes across the nation.

Giles added: "Due to the short-term allocation of this funding, it has resulted in no quantifiable uplift in the condition and resilience of the network.

"In fact, almost all (94 per cent) local authority highway teams reported that, in their opinion, there has been no improvement to their local network over the last year: a view no doubt shared by the majority of road users."

The ALARM report also found that local authorities would have needed an extra £7.4million each last year to maintain the road network and prevent further deterioration.

Concerningly, more than 106,000 miles of roads across England or Wales - or 52 per cent of the network - have less than 15 years of structural life remaining.

Giles said a "complete change in mindset" was needed for local authorities and the Government to move away from short-term fixes and towards longer-term funding commitments.

In the 2024/25 financial year, 1.9 million potholes have been filled across England and Wales at a cost of £137.4million.

Giles, alongside a number of industry experts, has called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to set up a minimum five-year funding horizon and a "substantial" increase in investment in the upcoming Spring Statement on March 26.

Simon Williams, head of policy at the RAC, echoed the calls from the AIA, saying that the lack of investment now will continue to haunt roads and motorists in the long term with bigger repair costs.

He said: "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."

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Councillor Adam Hug, transport spokesperson at the Local Government Association, added: "It is no surprise to councils that the local roads repair backlog continues to rise, given inflation and huge demand pressures on local government statutory services.

"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."

AA President Edmund King also responded to the findings of the report, saying the UK was "nowhere close" to getting away from pothole issues, again highlighting the magnitude of the £17billion cost to work through the backlog.

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