Piecemeal and stop-go road maintenance funding is making carriageway repairs more costly, an influential Parliamentary group has said.

Margaret Hodge of the Public Accounts Committee added that recent years have seen too much reactive work in response to flooding and not enough focus on preventative work.

“It seems ludicrous that the Department for Transport cut road maintenance budgets by £1.2Bn over the four years from April 2011 but then intermittently gave £1.1Bn additional funding on nine separate occasions in response to flooding or winter damage," she said. "The Department must see that prevention is better than cure.”

The Department for Transport said in a statement: “We are absolutely committed to tackling potholes on local roads. We have increased funding by more than 27% in this parliamentary term compared with the last one and encourage councils to undertake more planned preventative maintenance.

“But we make no apology for responding to unforeseen circumstances, such as the additional £180M we provided to help councils deal with damage caused by severe weather.”

The Local Government Association's transport spokesman Councillor Peter Box said that councils need increased and consistent funding to invest in resurfacing projects. “It will take more than a decade to bring our roads up to scratch,” he said.

“Tackling this must be a national priority and Government can do this by injecting an extra £1Bn a year into roads maintenance, funded by investing two pence a litre from fuel duty.”

Asphalt Industry Alliance chairman Alan Mackenzie added: “We agree that more should be done to encourage a greater focus on planned preventative road maintenance.”

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