Commons committee chairman says local roads are ‘riddled with potholes’

Local road conditions in England have been branded “a national embarrassment” by the head of a House of Commons committee.

Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), warned that road users are being put at risk from “highways riddled with potholes”.

A damning report by the committee found the Department for Transport (DfT) “has not taken responsibility” for its role in how roads have deteriorated.

The cost of bringing pothole-plagued local roads in England and Wales up to scratch has been estimated at £16.3 billion.

The PAC’s report stated that the DfT “has not set out what outcomes it expects” from its funding for local roads maintenance, nor “sought to evaluate its impact”.

It added: “The department has overall policy responsibility for local roads but has shown too little interest in what difference its funding of local roads maintenance has made.”

Local roads maintenance funding for England provided by the Government in the 2025/26 financial year will be nearly £1.6 billion, representing a £500 million uplift compared with the previous 12 months.

The PAC also found that the DfT “does not have a good grasp of the condition that local roads in England are really in”.

It stated there are “too many gaps in the data it collects”.

The DfT’s data suggests local road conditions have been “broadly stable” but this “does not reflect what people, businesses and local authorities are experiencing,” the PAC added.

Sir Geoffrey said: “The declining state of England’s local roads is a national embarrassment.

“As well as harming the prospects for our economy and communities’ own social wellbeing, highways riddled with potholes pose an increasing safety threat to road users.

“Alarmingly, however, not only is the state of our local roads on the downslope, our inquiry shows Government are having to find out about these issues from industry bodies and road users themselves due to their own patchy data.

“This committee has long raised concerns around a failure across Government departments to effectively fund and plan for the future, a theme that is certainly on show here, along with an overly tangled web of accountability.”

The PAC recommended that the DfT clearly set out “roles and responsibilities” for itself and local authorities in ensuring local roads are “maintained to a good standard throughout England”.

It also called on the department to “simplify” its funding for local roads and “provide more long-term certainty”.

A DfT spokesperson said: “For far too long our roads have been left to crumble, and this PAC report has laid bare the result of the decades of decline we have inherited in our road infrastructure.

“That’s why we’re investing a record £1.6 billion for the coming year to help local authorities fix up to seven million more potholes.

“Road users are rightly frustrated by patchwork repairs, so we are also committed to multi-year funding settlements to enable councils to better maintain their road networks and avoid potholes forming in the first place.”

Adam Hug, transport spokesman for the Local Government Association, said: “Greater long-term funding certainty for local highways authorities – with five-yearly funding allocations on a par with National Highways – is needed to tackle the multibillion-pound local roads backlog, as this report recommends.”

It emerged on Wednesday that the total cost of repairing vehicles damaged by potholes hit a record high last year.

The AA said the total cost of fixing vehicles it attended in the UK that had broken down because of poor road surfaces in 2024 was £579 million.

That is compared with £474 million during the previous 12 months and is the highest total on record.

Common problems caused by potholes include damaged shock absorbers, broken suspension springs and distorted wheels.