If you didn’t already realise it, Britain’s road network is descending into a black hole of maintenance backlogs.

Local authority highway teams in England and Wales require more than £14 billion to fix the backlog of road repairs according to industry monitoring.

This year’s Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), makes bleak reading. It is the most damning report of the state of our roads on record.

Undermining the foundations

According to the research conclusions, average highway maintenance budgets across England and Wales have increased by 4.5% to £25.8 million per authority. However, more than half (53%) of local authorities reported a cut or freeze in their highway maintenance budget.

In fact, when inflation is taken into account, the total highway maintenance budget of £4.33 billion represents a cut in real terms.

Backlogs in repairs have been building for well over a decade as austerity has seen local authority budgets cut, and government money focused on new carriageways.

The rising costs have been exacerbated by inflationary pressures. Engineers are being forced to postpone or cancel road schemes to make savings.

According to local authorities themselves, the gap between funding and what is needed to keep roads at target conditions and prevent further decline is now £1.3bn. It represents a jump of more than 20% on last year’s figure. It is the highest amount reported in 28 years of successive ALARM surveys.

Long drive back

Fixing the backlog of carriageway repairs is reported to have increased by a further 11% on last year’s record figure to a new high of £14.02bn. That is the equivalent of £68,000 per mile of local road in England and Wales. It would take an average of 11 years to complete the work needed.

In last weeks budget, the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, announced just £200m to fix the potholes.

Over the past year, ALARM reports that 1.4 million potholes were filled – down from 1.7 million the previous year – but still equivalent to one every 22 seconds.

Overall, £93.7m was spent filling potholes in 2022/23 and the total spent over the past 10 years is more than £1bn.

Local authorities would have needed an average of an extra £7.7m each last year just to reach their own target road conditions.

While half (51%) of local roads are reported to be in good structural condition, the remainder, more than 100,000 miles, could, without appropriate maintenance measures, continue to deteriorate to the point of needing to be rebuilt within the next 15 years.

Almost one fifth (18%) of the network (almost 37,000 miles) is already assessed as having less than five years’ structural life remaining, with the average frequency of resurfacing for all classes of roads now stands at once every 116 years.

Structurally unsound policies

Rick Green, chair of the AIA, says the latest funding announced will barely scratch the surface. “Potholes and the condition of our local roads remain key issues for the public,” he says. He describes the budget statement as doing “ little to improve overall structural conditions and stem further decline”.

Cllr David Renard, transport spokesperson for the Local Government Association (LGA), said: “Councils work tirelessly to repair our local roads, which are the bedrock of our economy – vital for businesses and for ordinary people going about their day-to-day lives. It is therefore alarming that, due to soaring inflation and historic funding cuts, councils’ repair backlog has grown and this has become increasingly challenging to tackle.

Paying the price

Kwik Fit’s Pothole Impact Tracker (PIT) shows that over the past 12 months, pothole damage has forced nearly 2.7million cars off the road.

The report found that in the year to March 2023, 13.1 million drivers suffered damage to their car after hitting a pothole. Of these, one in five had to do without their vehicle for more than a week while it was undergoing repairs

The average repair bill faced by each driver was £127, resulting in a total cost to the nation’s motorists of £1.7bn

Kwik Fit’s research also found that more than half of all drivers (51%) say the condition of the roads in their area are worse than 10 years ago, with 39% saying they are significantly worse.

Only one in eight (13%) say the roads are in better condition than a decade ago.

Furthermore, almost half of all drivers (47%) think that a portion of the money the Government raises through fuel duty and vehicle excise duty should be ring-fenced for improving road surfaces.

Roger Griggs, communications director at Kwik Fit, says it’s important for drivers to report problem potholes, even if they don’t think they have damaged their car.

“We know councils have huge demands on their budgets, but it is better that they are aware of a pothole as early as possible,” he said.

“The condition of road surfaces only goes in one direction, so the longer a problem is left, the more costly it will be to repair.  ”

Breaking point

This year’s ALARM survey received a record number of responses from 75% of local authorities in England and Wales.

Institute of Highway Engineers chief executive, Steve Spender, says the record number of responses clearly shows the frustrations felt by local highways engineers.

“It clearly highlights the real need for a longer-term funding plan from central government to help prevent further deterioration of our local road network.”

The RAC has long campaigned for a more sustainable form of funding that allows councils to replace roads that are at the end of their useful lives.

“Sadly, everyone but the Government appears to recognise this,” RAC head of roads policy, Nicholas Lyes. “This is why the Government’s eternal emphasis on filling potholes is so frustrating as it’s simply treating the symptoms, and not dealing with the root cause. As a nation so dependent on road transport, we must not let this go on.”

He continued: “It’s incredible that council funding is now so inadequate that almost one-in-five roads have under five years’ structural life left. This means the gap between the money councils have and what they need is widening – with road users ultimately left suffering.”

Head of roads policy at the AA, Jack Cousens, labelled the condition of some of our roads as an “international embarrassment”.

He explained: “National and local politicians have failed to look after their biggest and most important asset for years.

“Years of sticking plaster solutions haven’t solved the problem, so it’s now time for serious investment and serious action.”

To view the full ALARM survey, visit www.asphaltuk.org.