Extra £8bn to fix potholes hailed as 'game changer'

The Asphalt Industry Alliance estimates it will cost £14 billion to fix all potholes in the country. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Archives

The Government will spend an extra £8 billion over the next decade to tackle the country's pothole crisis.

The Department for Transport will use £8.3 billion of money saved from demolishing the northern section of the motorway. HS2 will be included in local road maintenance budgets over the next 10 years. Officials are calling it the «biggest ever allocation for local roads».

Funding will be released as early as April across all regions of England to provide additional money for road maintenance, likely to total hundreds of millions of pounds sterling per year.

The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) said the new funding could be a «game changer» but warned it should be ring-fenced solely for road maintenance and should not require councils to bid.

After After several weeks of speculation, the prime minister told the Conservative conference on Wednesday that the high-speed rail section planned from Birmingham to Manchester would not go ahead.

To compensate for regions that will lose investment in HS2, Rishi Sunak has pledged to spend every penny of the estimated £36 billion saved on transport projects outside London.

Included in this figure were plans to create three funds potholes totaling £8.3 billion. This includes £3.3 billion given to councils in the north of England, £2.2 billion to Midlands authorities and £2.8 billion to the south east, south west and east of England.

The Telegraph can now reveal that the commitment will cover road maintenance for the next 10 years, with the first money being handed out in April next year.

It is understood the annual funding given to councils will increase. over time to ensure councils can build supply chains.

It is also likely because most of the money earmarked for supplying the northern leg of HS2 will only come online in the second half of the decade. < /p>

Only the £2 bus cap and pothole funding will be available until 2026/27, with money available for transport infrastructure projects after that.

Mr Sunak's rail and road spending promises include There was £2.5 billion to build a new public transport system covering West Yorkshire, as well as just under £2 billion for a new rail hub in the West Midlands.

The £8.3 billion pothole bill comes as the Government comes under increasing pressure to fix the country's crumbling roads. In its annual pothole survey, Alarm AIA estimated in March that fixing all potholes in the country would cost £14 billion.

The report also found that one in five roads will become undriveable in the next five years. years unless measures are taken.

According to the Local Government Association, the cost of maintaining local roads in England fell from £4 billion in 2006 to £2 billion in 2019.

The amount spent on maintenance has fallen further since 2020 year when the government scrapped its Pothole Fund, which had guaranteed nearly £300 million of protected funding between 2016 and 2020.

A DfT spokesman said the money being provided would be on top of the almost £1 billion it already provides on average each year.

He said: “We are investing a record amount of money in tackling potholes, which will enable local authorities finance road maintenance. nearly doubled over the next decade.»

Rick Green, chairman of the AIA, said: «The government's announcement to invest in resurfacing schemes to tackle the repair backlog and help ease travel across the country could be a game-changer for locals authorities.

< p>“But there is a history of blanket funding for potholes that has no discernible impact on the road surfaces we all drive on.

“Looking forward, any additional funding needs to be ring-fenced if it is going to make a difference.

“Local roads authorities also need funding security and clarity of allocation, without having to waste time and money bidding for funds, so they can start planning now how to invest.”< /p>

Louise Hay, Shadow Labour's transport minister, said: «How Chancellor and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has repeatedly failed motorists, and the mess of potholes plaguing our roads is just one example.»

» Despite his broken promises to tackle «With the pothole epidemic, his decisions put eight million more people on our roads, enough to drive from No. 10 to John-O'Groats and back. After 13 years of failure, like our roads, his promises are crumbling.»