Pothole funding ‘doesn’t go far enough’

Despite the government pledging £500m to solve the pothole crisis in Wednesday’s Budget, more than two million potholes could remain unrepaired each year, according to new research by Citroen UK.

Last year’s 2019 Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) report showed councils in England and Wales were £657m short on the funds they needed for road maintenance and pothole repairs.

In the 2020 Budget, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, confirmed a £500 bonus each year for the next five years to repair potholes across the UK. The Government also pledged to spend £1.5bn in 2020-2021 on road repairs across the country, with the aim of repairing 50 million potholes in the next five years.

However, with a £657m shortfall in annual funding, the new Budget measures could still leave more than two million potholes a year in need of repairs.

Since 2013, the 365 local authorities across England and Wales have spent more than £74m paying drivers compensation for damage caused by potholes.

Souad Wrixen, marketing director Citroën UK, said: “The state of the roads in England and Wales is no secret to anyone, so people up and down the country will welcome this latest announcement of a significant increase in the funding to repair our roads.”