English councils must prove pothole repairs or lose funding
House of Commons' public accounts committee recently found England's roads to be "national embarrassment" From 30 June, each local authority must publish a report detailing how many potholes it has repaired England’s local authorities will now be required to publish annual reports stating how many potholes they have filled, else face losing a significant portion of their funding for road repairs. The Department for Transport (DfT) said it would withhold 25% of the extra funding recently granted to councils – amounting to £500 million – if they do not publish the reports. By 30 June, each council must publish a report detailing how much money it has spent on filling potholes and how many potholes they have filled, as well as describing the condition of the roads within their borders. They must also detail how they are minimising disruption from roadworks, and how they are spending on long-term preventative maintenance. By November, councils will be required to show they are engaging with their communities on where repairs need to be carried out.. The introduction of reports and the threat of withholding funding is intended to “prove public confidence in [councils’] work”, according to the DfT. The DfT also announced it will provide National Highways with £4.8 billion in funding for National Highways (the organisation responsible for strategically important routes such as motorways and major A-roads) for the 2025-26 financial year. That matches the agency's £4.81 billion budget from the financial year ended 31 March 2024. “British people are bored of seeing their politicians aimlessly pointing at potholes with no real plan to fix them,” said prime minister Keir Starmer. “That ends with us. We’ve done our part by handing councils the cash and certainty they need - now it’s up to them to get on with the job, put that money to use and prove they’re delivering for their communities.” The news comes after the House of Commons’ public accounts committee – the group of MPs responsible for overseeing the value for money and services provided by government programmes – found the state of England’s local roads to be a “national embarrassment”. It found that “the state of England’s local roads is declining”, yet “the DfT neither knows exactly how authorities spend its funding, as it is not ring-fenced, nor what it wants to achieve with it”. It added that has been a failure to take policy and the use of taxpayer funds “sufficiently seriously” when considering the 183,000 miles of local roads across England, which comprises 98% of its total network. That report came after the National Audit Office last year said the government “does not know” whether £1.6 billion of taxpayer money is making a difference to the state of England’s roads.
House of Commons' public accounts committee recently found England's roads to be "national embarrassment"From 30 June, each local authority must publish a report detailing how many potholes it has repaired
England’s local authorities will now be required to publish annual reports stating how many potholes they have filled, else face losing a significant portion of their funding for road repairs.
The Department for Transport (DfT) said it would withhold 25% of the extra funding recently granted to councils – amounting to £500 million – if they do not publish the reports.
By 30 June, each council must publish a report detailing how much money it has spent on filling potholes and how many potholes they have filled, as well as describing the condition of the roads within their borders. They must also detail how they are minimising disruption from roadworks, and how they are spending on long-term preventative maintenance.
By November, councils will be required to show they are engaging with their communities on where repairs need to be carried out..
The introduction of reports and the threat of withholding funding is intended to “prove public confidence in [councils’] work”, according to the DfT.
The DfT also announced it will provide National Highways with £4.8 billion in funding for National Highways (the organisation responsible for strategically important routes such as motorways and major A-roads) for the 2025-26 financial year. That matches the agency's £4.81 billion budget from the financial year ended 31 March 2024.
“British people are bored of seeing their politicians aimlessly pointing at potholes with no real plan to fix them,” said prime minister Keir Starmer. “That ends with us. We’ve done our part by handing councils the cash and certainty they need - now it’s up to them to get on with the job, put that money to use and prove they’re delivering for their communities.”
The news comes after the House of Commons’ public accounts committee – the group of MPs responsible for overseeing the value for money and services provided by government programmes – found the state of England’s local roads to be a “national embarrassment”.
It found that “the state of England’s local roads is declining”, yet “the DfT neither knows exactly how authorities spend its funding, as it is not ring-fenced, nor what it wants to achieve with it”.
It added that has been a failure to take policy and the use of taxpayer funds “sufficiently seriously” when considering the 183,000 miles of local roads across England, which comprises 98% of its total network.
That report came after the National Audit Office last year said the government “does not know” whether £1.6 billion of taxpayer money is making a difference to the state of England’s roads.
