Its annual ‘ALARM’ report says that a legacy of inconsistent funding in England and Wales is still preventing local highway engineers from providing long term, effective maintenance improvement resulting in “wasteful” patch and mend repairs.

But the survey also reveals that the total shortfall in the annual carriageway maintenance budget has reduced by around a tenth in the last year to £752M and the estimated time to clear the backlog has come down slightly from 11 to 10 years.

Further statistics from the report show that the number of potholes filled over the last year increased by more than 11% to 1.6 million compared to the 2020 survey, and that the amount paid in road user compensation claims fell from £8.1M in last year’s survey to £3.6M this year.

“While the extra funding in 2020/21 was welcomed, using it to repeatedly fill in potholes is essentially a failure as it does nothing to improve the resilience of the network,” said Alliance chair Rick Green. “The average frequency of road surfacing is now once every 68 years and the bill to fix the backlog of maintenance work on our local roads in England and Wales remains in excess of £10Bn.”

He called for a long term approach to local road funding, similar to the five year spending commitments on the strategic road network. “This commitment is vital to the nation’s post pandemic reset in which we will rely on our local road network to support recovery and underpin active travel and levelling up goals,” added Rick.

Responding to the report, the Local Government Association’s transport spokesman David Renard said: “Despite the pandemic, councils have been working hard to repair our roads, fixing a pothole every 19 seconds.”

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “This Government is providing £2.5Bn in funding over five years to help councils improve their roads, to ensure all road users have smoother, safer journeys.” He added that further funding decisions for local roads maintenance will take place at the next Spending Review.

Sue Percy CBE, Chief Executive, CIHT said:

“Everyone depends on the UK’s network of local highways; they are at the heart of our communities and these arteries of our country need to be invested in to ensure fitness to compete in the global economy. Despite the efforts of central and local government, the LHN is not in a good state and not up to the job of supporting the country’s ambitions for the future.”

“CIHT has repeatedly called for the government to commit to deliver a four-point strategy for the Local Highway Network that will create a vision, funding and focus over the next ten years.”

“Our recommendations include the need to establish a new inflation-linked local highways fund (on top of the current funding); creation of an improved system of monitoring and a national condition database.”

“CIHT believe that through the recommendations we outlined in ‘Improving Local Highways’, we can show how the highway network will support the delivery of a carbon-neutral system, create sustainable, green, resilient, and accessible places, make transport healthier, and help the economy grow.”

The full report and supporting research is available here 

(Photograph: Asphalt Industry Alliance)