It will take over a decade and nearly £663m to get roads in good shape

Chancellor’s announcement was a ‘step in the right direction’

IT will take more than a decade and nearly a billion pounds to get East Midlands roads back up to scratch.

It would cost councils in the region an estimated £663 million and 15 years to get roads back to a reasonable standard, according to the councils that responded to the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey.

The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), which runs the survey, said while the Chancellor’s additional £2.5 billion pothole pledge was a step in the right direction, it was not enough to plug the gap in local road maintenance budgets, let alone the rising backlog of repairs.

Councils in the East Midlands have filled 111,398 potholes in the most recent year.

They’ve also had to pay out £718,700 in compensation to road users as a result of highways issues.

The AIA said the Government’s £2.5 billion pothole pledge over five years is a fraction of the estimated £11.14 billion over 11 years needed nationally, in time and money, to bring local roads up to a decent maintainable standard.

It also found English and

Welsh local authorities are reporting a shortfall in carriageway maintenance funding of £826.6 million a year – equivalent to £4.9 million per authority – up 8% on last year.

Average highway maintenance budgets were down 16% this year, from £24.5 million in 2018/19 to £20.7 million per authority in 2019/20.

Roads across the country were found to be declining in quality.

This year there are 7,240 fewer miles of roads reported to be in a good structural condition (with 15 years or more of life remaining) and 1,100 more miles of roads classed as poor (with less than five years’ life remaining), bringing the total in this category to 42,675 miles.

Rick Green, chair of the AIA, said: “Highway maintenance budgets have dropped back to where they were two years ago.

“Over the past 25 years, we have repeatedly seen this pattern of short-term cash injections to stem accelerating decline, only to be followed by further years of underfunding.

“This stop-start approach has been wasteful and does nothing to improve the condition of the local road network on which we all rely. In fact, it has just contributed to a rising bill to put things right.

“The £2.5 billion extra funding over the next five years announced in the Budget will certainly be welcomed by hardpressed local authority highway teams dealing with increasing demands on smaller budgets, as well as the effects of extreme weather events, such as the recent storms, on an ageing network.

“However, £500 million extra a year divided across English local authorities is a long way off the one-time catch-up cost of £11.14 billion that ALARM 2020 indicates is needed to bring our local roads across England, London and Wales up to a level from which they can be maintained cost effectively going forward. What’s needed is additional and sustained investment to help underpin the Government’s levelling-up strategy and social cohesion goals, as well as complement its ambitions for more sustainable modes of transport.

“Twenty-five years on and we are dealing with new and unprecedented challenges and understandably resources will need to be prioritised accordingly in the short-term. Looking ahead, however, a sustainably-funded, well-maintained local road network will be key to supporting recovery and regrowth.”