Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) reports that Local authorities filled 1.5m potholes in the 2019-20 financial year compared with 1.9m during the previous 12 months.

Over the same period, councils’ average highway maintenance budgets fell by 16%, while the typical amount they paid in compensation for damage caused by poor road conditions increased by 17% to £8.1m.

In the budget earlier this month the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced £2.5b of extra funding over the next five years to tackle potholes in England.

CIHT’s advice to the government called for an increase in local road maintenance budgets. While the potholes fund is a welcome step, there is a need to increase this significantly over and above this amount if we are to truly have a resilient local highway network.

CIHT’s ‘Improving Local Highways’ project which will launch shortly showing how funding can be implemented effectively.

Steve Gooding, the director of the RAC Foundation, said:

“Given the huge coronavirus spending pressures the chancellor is facing, now doesn’t feel like the right moment to demand a further boost on road funding. But looking further ahead to the post-coronavirus period, and the likely need to stimulate a deadened economy, this report should prompt the government to consider committing to an ambitious maintenance initiative for the most important local roads.”