Figures from the Asphalt Industry Alliance’s latest annual survey of local authorities show that average highway maintenance budgets rose by almost 20% for the second consecutive year.

“There are glimmers of hope,” said AIA chairman Rick Green. “But there is still a big discrepancy between the haves and have nots. Some local authorities received the equivalent of £90,000 per mile of their individual networks, while a third continue to struggle with reduced budgets and several have less than £9000 per mile to maintain their local roads.”

He added he was encouraged that “those in charge of the purse strings seem to have recognised the value that additional expenditure on roads can deliver”. But he added that a 29% increase in the number of potholes filled in England shows that much of this has been used for patch and mend.

The survey also found that each local authority in England still faces an average £4.1M shortfall in their annual carriageway budgets, with authorities in London fairing only slightly better (£4M). Authorities in Wales face an average shortfall of £2.8M.

Motoring organisation the AA’s president Edmund King said: “The survey suggests that the country is beginning to find its way out of the rut. Increased funding and a milder winter presents an opportunity to begin to catch up on the backlog, but any slackening off will simply pitch our roads back into a deep hole. There is still a lot of work to be done.”

RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding added: “The Government was rightly congratulated when it committed to a five yearly work and funding programme for our major roads including motorways, but we are yet to come up with something similar for council controlled highways.

“This report shows why a move away from patch and repair to a sustained investment plan is so urgently needed and it echoes last year’s National Infrastructure Commission call for the same thing.”

Local Government Association transport spokesman Martin Tett said that the forthcoming Spending Review needs to provide councils “with long term and consistent funding to invest in the resurfacing projects which our road network desperately needs over the next decade.

“Reinvesting two pence per litre of existing fuel duty into local road maintenance would provide £1Bn a year for councils to spend on improving roads and filling potholes and begin bringing our roads up to scratch.”

(Photograph: Alastair Lloyd)