Following her Autumn Budget statement last week, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced that £500 million per year will be allocated to councils for fixing potholes and improving roads, provided they publish maintenance data publicly.
This change is part of the government’s commitment to double roads cash by the end of Parliament, with £500 million available annually to councils for fixing potholes, provided they meet transparency and accountability criteria.
The share of the budget tied to transparency has been tripled, meaning that councils in England will only be able to unlock this funding if they publish clear pothole and maintenance data on a publicly accessible platform and follow best practice.
Each local authority will still be able to use its share of core funding to identify the roads most in need of repair and deliver immediate improvements for communities and residents.
However, a much bigger portion of additional funding is now tied to councils publishing pothole information and improving transparency with residents and local drivers.
Those that do not provide transparent information on road maintenance will not receive this extra portion of cash.
Core regional allocations for the next four years are laid out below:
- North West: £800 million
- Yorkshire and the Humber: £500 million
- East Midlands: £700 million
- West Midlands: £800 million
- East of England: £1.2 billion
- South East: £1.5 billion
- South West: £1.5 billion
- London: £300 million
- North East: £30 million
AA president Edmund King hailed the changes introduced by the government as a positive outcome for drivers concerned about the quality of England’s roads.
“Potholes are the number one transport concern for drivers and continue to blight too many roads, so this funding should help smooth out the road ahead,” Kin said.
“Providing councils with long-term funding, coupled with the requirement to publish repair data and strategies, is a pragmatic solution. That will enable residents to see how their council is progressing and hold them to account.”
Reeves said that her budget took fair and necessary choices to ‘break Britain out of its cycle of decline’ and chose investment over austerity.
“We promised to fix an extra million potholes a year by the end of this Parliament – we’re doing exactly that,” Reeves said.
“We are doubling the funding promised by the previous government, making sure well maintained roads keep businesses moving, communities connected and growth reaching every part of the country.”
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