The UK’s roads continue to deteriorate, but just a small number of councils are investing in permanent fixes
Ineffective repair practices, poor financial controls and a lack of long-term maintenance planning by councils are among the reasons Britain’s motorists are experiencing record numbers of potholes, claims an industry expert.
For the 2025/26 financial year, the UK government handed councils an extra £1.6 billion for highway maintenance and has pledged a further £7.3bn over the next four years. However, the latest Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance survey by the Asphalt Industry Alliance claims that the 17% budget increase has yielded only marginal improvements in the conditions of UK roads.
Indeed, only 16 of the 154 local authorities in England are using that extra budget effectively, according to the Department for Transport. For example, many are still using expensive, short-term repairs instead of more cost-effective, long-term preventative measures, it says.
More potholes mean more damage to cars. The AA reports that its teams were called out to 137,000 pothole-related incidents in January and February, an increase of 25,000 on the same period last year.
The RAC said call-outs it received for damaged wheels and suspension systems averaged 225 per day in February (up from 66 per day the year before) due to heavy rain concealing potholes – 26 areas across the UK experienced their wettest month on record. “Water is the enemy of the roads and preventing it from sitting on them is key to their long-term health, so it’s vital more work to improve drainage is carried out,” the RAC told Autocar.
What’s more, Admiral Insurance has so far this year received 75% more pothole-related claims than it did in the same period last year. Claims for February were up 144% year on year.
Ben Rawding, general manager of JCB (pictured below), is a member of the Pothole Partnership, a lobby group that is calling for non-emergency pothole repairs to be covered by a five-year warranty. He said inefficiencies and inconsistencies in how councils maintain roads are making a bad situation even worse.
“Councils have huge scope to do more with their existing budgets,” said Rawding.
“However, where they use contractors and sub-contractors to maintain and repair their roads, we see inefficiencies compared with those councils, typically in the north of the country, that are directly responsible for the work.
“Widely varying contract terms, poor economies of scale and an absence of key performance indicators characterise the worst.”
Rawding said efficient councils recognise that planned rather than reactive maintenance is key to reducing the incidence of potholes.
“With planned maintenance, the council focuses on a stretch of potholes, removes the road surface and puts in some ‘hot mix’ compacted with a roller to bind the repair. ‘Throw and go’, where a contractor just shovels in cold mix, can only be temporary. Around 40% of Wales’s roads are repaired in this way, which is crazy. The goal should always be a one-time fix, said Rawding.
Among the 16 councils awarded a green rating by the Department for Transport for repairing potholes effectively and for investing in long-term preventative maintenance Is Wiltshire County Council. This financial year, it will spend 88% of its £38 million highways budget on preventative rather than reactive maintenance.
“It’s the only way to avoid going around in circles,” said councillor Martin Smith, cabinet member for highways. However, while he was pleased the council received a green rating. he admitted that drivers remain sceptical about the condition of the roads.
“Our green rating is not drivers’ lived experience, where the recent wet weather has created many potholes,” said Smith. “However, our contractors, who we manage carefully, have repaired almost 5200 potholes so far this year. Many are temporary fixes for safety reasons but we’ll be back later to close the roads and repair them properly.”