Debate on potholes and road maintenance, House of Commons, 5 June 2018

Councils work hard and invest significant resources into maintaining our local roads. It is vitally important that the nation’s local roads network enables commuters, businesses, residents and visitors to travel easily and freely within our local areas.

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  • There is currently a £9.3 billion roads repair backlog, meaning Government investment in local roads maintenance is critical. Councils are fixing a pothole every 21 seconds, which is unsustainable and potentially dangerous for local road users.
  • National roads and motorway maintenance is receiving 52 times more funding than local roads. This is despite very few journeys beginning and ending on a motorway or trunk road, and local networks being severely congested.
  • Only long-term and consistent investment in local road maintenance can allow councils to embark on the widespread improvement of our roads that is desperately needed. This would be to the benefit of all road users up and down the country, as well as non-road users such as cyclists and pedestrians.
  • We are calling on the Government to reinvest 2 pence per litre of existing fuel duty into local road maintenance. This simple measure would generate £1 billion a year for councils to spend on improving roads and filling potholes and begin addressing the repair backlog.

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