Pothole compensation claims more than double in a year

A Freedom of Information request to 21 local authorities has revealed pothole compensation claims have more than doubled over the past 12 months.

In 2022, 8327 claims were made to the 18 councils that responded. Just a year later, this had rocketed to 20,432.

However, the number of successful claims that received a payout was a mere fraction of that – 3131, or just 15%.

The RAC calculates that this equates to a total of £824k, or just £260 per claim. That’s 43% less than the £460 drivers can expect to pay if their car needs repairs for anything more than a puncture.

13 of the 17 councils that paid out compensation refused more than 3 in 4 claims in 2023. What’s more, five councils refused 9 in 10 claims, with Gloucestershire County Council refusing 98% of claims and Essex refusing 95% of its 2560 claims.

Overall, nearly 3 in 4 claims were refused due to the authority saying it was not aware of the potholes in question, under Section 58 2d of the Highways Act 1980.

In Gloucestershire and Hertfordshire, every single claim refused was because they said they didn’t know a particular pothole existed.

Councils also forked out £166,000 in legal fees to defend compensation claims, with Lincolnshire County Council alone spending nearly £96k to defend itself against some of the 1771 pothole claims it received last year.

Devon County Council spent £33k, Essex spent nearly £20k, while all the other authorities spent less than £10k.  

This very much leaves Lincolnshire as the outlier. 

Where are the pothole damage hotspots? Surrey County Council saw the biggest increase in claims, rising from 734 in 2022 to 3418 in 2023.

In terms of claims per mile of road, Surrey received a staggering one pothole claim for every single mile of its 3410-mile road network.

Hampshire was a close second, with claims up from 750 to 2654. Gloucestershire saw the third-biggest increase in claims, from 257 in 2022 to 829 in 2023.

"These findings are a stark reminder that the ongoing poor condition of many of the UK’s local roads is burning holes in the pockets of both local authorities and drivers," says RAC head of policy Simon Williams.

"While some councils appeared to prioritise paying legal fees over settling pothole claims, the cost in time and money defending claims appears to far outweigh the expense of reimbursing drivers in the first place."

He added that when it comes to the true extent of the problem, we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg. "Almost as many councils refused to tell us why they threw out pothole claims as those that did."

The RAC says local authorities need greater certainty of funding so they can tackle the root cause of the UK’s pothole plague. They’ll soon receive £500m to start the process of improving their road networks.

The RAC is also encouraging motorists to use the free Stan app to report potholes.