Speaking at the first evidence session of the committee’s local roads funding and governance inquiry, Matthew Lugg said: “We have reached a breaking point where the current funding regime isn’t working and we need to start thinking about different scenarios.”

He highlighted that local authority revenue budgets continue to be squeezed due to pressures from adult social care and children’s services. This has led to a situation “where some local highways authorities are almost going bust and therefore they are looking at providing almost the statutory minimum in terms of funding for highways maintenance. The consequences of this are really stark,” he said.

Matthew explained that the upcoming CIHT Lugg Review will explore different future scenarios and make recommendations for new ways of funding road maintenance, which he added could include a ‘pay as you go’ system of road user charging.

“What we need is long term visibility and certainty of investment so that councils can make the right decisions at the right time and undertake good strategic asset management,” he told the committee, noting that those authorities with long term PFI deals in place are not facing some of the problems experienced elsewhere.

He added there is a need to rationalise the number of local highway authorities. “If you started with a blank canvas, you would never have 152 different organisations managing the road network in this country. Many are too small to have the capacity and capability to effectively manage their road network or benefit from economies of scale.”

Matthew Lugg also called for better information at a national level about network condition, including footways, drainage assets, signs and lines. “Frankly we don’t have a true picture of the overall condition of the network,” he said, adding that the Department for Transport should take a lead in terms of specifying what data needs to be collected to inform levels of investment.

Also taking part in the discussion was Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport’s engineering board chair Mark Stevens. “The focus currently for many local authorities is about keeping the network safe and not necessarily putting in a system of improvements to stop the deterioration,” he said. “It’s a real fix and patch up approach and our roads become like a patchwork quilt.”

He added that an ideal scenario would no longer see potholes appearing on the network. “We would know they were going to appear before they’re there and be able to go out and do something about that road surface. We’re nowhere close to that.”

Asphalt Industry Alliance chairman Rick Green highlighted that 20,000 miles of local roads are expected to fail within the next year without intervention. “There has been historic under investment in the local road network and there’s only so much local authorities can do with being more efficient,” he said. “We’re getting to the stage where if there isn’t a significant cash injection in the near future we are facing a very serious situation.”

Cycling UK policy director Roger Geffen noted that the deterioration is most acute on unclassified roads, where injuries to pedestrians and cyclists are most concentrated. He called for a review of the Government’s wider spending priorities, noting that a lot of funding goes towards the building of new roads while spending on improving the condition of local roads “seems to have been neglected”.

Campaign for Better Transport chief executive Darren Shirley agreed, saying: “There is no political priority at a national level to ensure our local road network is kept in a fit state for use.” He urged a diversion of some of the investment earmarked for the strategic and major road networks to fund local maintenance.

He added: “The new roads that are built have to be maintained as well and if we don’t have the budget for existing roads, why are we adding to the problem?”