By Johnny Sharp

It's an issue that’s such a perennial one for local authorities across the UK that it’s almost become a cliché: potholes. They remain a bugbear for highways professionals, motorists and other road users alike, and while it’s sometimes tempting to dismiss concern about poorly maintained roads and pavements as a trivial issue, it has a serious impact on a number of social, safety and economic fronts, and it’s getting worse.

The RAC reported that between April and June this year, pothole-related breakdowns rose 9 percent, despite the government’s election pledge to fix one million per year. 

“These problems all tie in with issues around the resilience of our roads. With climate change those patterns are occurring more and more,” says Matilda Fisher, CIHT’s Policy Advisor who worked on the CIHT’s April 2025 member’s article ‘Potholes and poorly maintained footways: The cost to the NHS’.

The study showed that poor surfaces have an impact far beyond mere irritation and eyesores. “We've particularly looked at the human cost of it,” says Fisher.

Image: Matilda Fisher, CIHT Policy Advisor. Credit: CIHT.

Car users not the only victims

And that impact should not be underestimated. According to Cycling UK, 15 percent of cyclists they help were involved in accidents involving some sort of road surface defect. These can even be fatal. In 2023, a coroner ruled that an unfixed crack in the road led to the death of a cyclist in Lancashire.

“The Cycling UK survey also looked at the compensation costs associated with those,” says Fisher. “They can be really high – they found that if a cyclist’s claim for personal injury or damage to their bike is successful, they are on average awarded 13 times more than motorists.”

Meanwhile, Living Streets estimates that there are more than 10,000 personal injury claims made for pedestrian trips and falls on public footways in England every year, costing between £7.3 and £15.6 million. 

And while this adds up to a serious burden on local authority budgets, emergency services’ resources are also hit, as Fisher points out: “In terms of direct costs to the NHS, we look at examples like broken bones, which come in at around £3,000-£5,000 cost, while the DfT have estimated that even slight injuries caused by road traffic accidents have an economic cost of around just under £16,000 per incident, when you factor in police, NHS and workplace losses.”

The study goes further to look at the wider impact on social exclusion. “There was a survey by Transport for All that we touched on, which found that only 21 percent of disabled people felt that they could walk or wheel with ease where they wanted to because of the poor conditions of roads and footpaths. That then has a mental health impact for those people.”

The drive towards modal shift by encouraging active travel is hindered too, as Fisher confirms: “We look at the economic and social costs of people not turning towards more active travel – and we’ve covered in our policy brief how that modal shift can have a major effect on all sorts of things; for instance, active travel greatly reduces the incidence of dementia and depression. If people are put off getting out due to the strong fear element – especially with cycling – then they’re not getting those benefits and that again has an impact on the NHS.”

For Fisher, the key is not just to make headline-grabbing pledges but to invest long-term to address the conditions of our roads and footways. “We’ve long been calling for the government to prioritise maintenance, adaptation and resilience,” she concludes. “We'd like to see them make at least a five-year commitment to a local roads investment strategy, like they have for strategic roads.”

Read more from CIHT: ‘Potholes and poorly maintained footways: The cost to the NHS’

Image: Matilda Fisher, CIHT Policy Advisor. Credit: CIHT.