Councils will need £12bn to maintain local roads
The backlog of repairs on pothole-plagued local roads has soared by almost a quarter in 12 months due to a lack of long-term investment, according to the findings of a new report.
A survey of councils by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) suggested it would cost £12.64bn to return local roads to a condition from which cost-effective maintenance would be possible – up £10.24bn on one year ago.
The AIA's annual local authority road maintenance survey also indicated that the proportion of council budgets allocated to highway maintenance has fallen during the last financial year - from 5.5% to 5.1%.
The survey found almost one in five local roads could need to be rebuilt in the next five years due to their condition, which is nearly 37,000 miles of road.
David Renard, transport spokesman for the Local Government Association, said: "Despite the efforts of councils, which repair a pothole every 19 seconds, these stark new figures show how our local road repair backlog is rising.
"To clear this growing backlog, councils need further Government investment and certainty over future funding over the next decade."
RAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes said the report "provides a sobering picture of the dire condition of our local road network".
He added: "The Government must now look at implementing a long-term funding strategy which ringfences a small proportion of existing fuel duty revenue to give local authorities the resources to properly plan maintenance and to ensure our local roads are once again made fit for purpose."