The Alliance says that Government’s recent pledge to spend £2.5Bn on pothole filling over the next five years does not go far enough to plug the widening gap in budgets – which are down 16% on average – or address the rising backlog of road repairs.

“Highway maintenance budgets have dropped back to where they were two years ago,” said the AIA’s chair Rick Green. “We have repeatedly seen this pattern of short term cash injections to stem accelerating decline, only to be followed by further years of underfunding.”

He added that while the Chancellor’s £2.5Bn Potholes Fund will be welcomed by local authority highway teams, “£500M extra a year divided across English local authorities is a long way off the one time catch up cost.”

This year’s Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey estimates that it would cost £11.14Bn to get all roads in England and Wales back into a reasonable, ‘steady state’. The figure rose from £9.79Bn in 2019 and £9.31Bn the year before. In 2017, the estimate stood at £12.06bn.

Heavy rainfall and flood events experienced in recent months may see the number rise further again in next year’s survey.

The report also reveals that it takes on average 66 years before a road is resurfaced.

This year there are 11,650 fewer kilometres of roads reported to be in good structural condition, with 15 years or more of life remaining, and 1770 more kilometres of roads are now classed as poor, with less than five years remaining. This brings to total in the poor category to 68,680km.

Rick Green said: “What’s needed is additional and sustained investment to help underpin the Government’s levelling up strategy and social cohesion goals, as well as complement its ambitions for more sustainable modes of transport.”

He added that “a sustainably-funded, well maintained local road network will be key to supporting recovery and regrowth”, following the Coronavirus lockdown.

Motoring group the RAC’s head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes said: “The AIA’s report yet again highlights how fragile our local roads are. While the Chancellor’s recent announcement of £2.5Bn over the next five years is welcome, the report suggests this is a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed to bring our roads up to an adequate level.”

Local Government Association transport spokesman David Renard said councils share the frustration of motorists about the state of local roads and continue to fix a pothole every 21 seconds. “Yet despite these efforts, it is clear that our roads are deteriorating at a faster rate than can be repaired by councils,” he said.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “We know potholes make life a misery for road users, which is why this Government is providing £2.5Bn over five years to help councils improve their roads – enough to repair around 10 million potholes a year.

“We are also trialling new technologies to keep our roads in a good condition for longer. Further funding for roads maintenance will be announced at the spending review.”

(Photograph: Asphalt Industry Alliance)