Pothole crisis worsens as road repair backlog reaches new heights
March 18, 2025 by Siobhan Doyle
Car changing is a big deal
Local roads in England and Wales have reached a troubling state. Despite years of repairs, the backlog of road maintenance has now reached nearly £17bn, according to a new report.
One in six miles of the local road network – about 34,600 miles – has less than five years’ structural life remaining. Meanwhile, roads are resurfaced, on average, only once every 93 years, the 30th Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey reveals.
David Giles, chair of the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), which commissions the survey, stressed the need for a long-term solution. “Over £20bn has been spent on carriageway maintenance over the last decade. However, due to the short-term allocation of this funding, it has resulted in no quantifiable uplift in the condition or resilience of the network.”
The report also revealed that nearly all local authority highway teams (94%) reported no improvement in their networks over the last year. This reflects the frustration felt by many road users.
The ALARM survey, which gives an in-depth look at local road conditions based on direct input from those responsible for maintaining the network. The findings show a repetitive cycle of short-term funding injections that fail to prevent the accelerating decline of road conditions.
“There needs to be a complete change in mindset, moving from short-term to long-term funding commitments,” said Giles. “Local authorities have told us they need their budgets to more than double over the next five to ten years to address the mounting repair backlog.”
With a Comprehensive Spending Review approaching, Giles is calling on the government to commit to a minimum five-year funding horizon, with substantial, sustained investment in local roads maintenance.
Giles also argued that such a commitment would allow authorities to plan better, deliver better value for taxpayers, and create a more resilient road network that would contribute to the government’s broader economic growth goals.
The ALARM 2025 survey, which covers the 2024/25 financial year, uncovered some alarming statistics. Local authorities were found to have needed an additional £7.4m each last year just to maintain their roads to the target conditions set by their own standards and to prevent further deterioration.
The situation is dire, with a staggering £16.81bn now required for a one-time investment to bring the entire road network up to “ideal” conditions. The survey also revealed that 52% of the network, amounting to over 106,000 miles, has less than 15 years of structural life remaining.
As the backlog of repairs grows, local authorities continue to tackle the issue. Over the past year, 1.9 million potholes were filled at a significant cost of £137.4m. Yet, despite these efforts, the challenges persist – the need for greater, long-term investment has never been more urgent.
Simon Williams, head of policy at the RAC, echoed these concerns: “Once again, these figures paint a bleak picture of the state of the nation’s roads. The majority of drivers have known for a long time that in far too many areas, road surfaces are simply not fit for purpose.
“The lack of investment in our roads is a false economy as it just leads to bigger repair costs in future – something local authorities can ill-afford. In the meantime, all road users continue to pay the price with uncomfortable journeys, avoidable breakdowns and repair bills that they only incur because potholes are so bad.
“We’re committed to working closely with the road maintenance sector, including the AIA, to get the message to government that councils need to have certainty of resources to look after one of their most valuable assets – the roads millions of us use every day.”
The pothole crisis is having an impact on the cars themselves, with UK drivers facing a total bill of £1.7bn in repairs over the last year. According to Kwik Fit’s annual Pothole Impact Tracker (PIT) Report, the average repair cost is the highest since 2013, increasing from £120 to £144. Additionally, over one million drivers paid more than £300 for repairs.
Before being elected in, Labour’s manifesto pledged to “fix an additional one million potholes across England in each year of the next parliament”. But with the pothole crisis showing no signs of easing, pressure is mounting on both local authorities and the government to take action and invest in the country’s deteriorating road infrastructure.
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