Government tells councils to fix potholes or lose cash

Richard Aucock, Contributor
Fri, 28 Mar 2025

Local councils will soon start to receive extra funding to tackle the "scourge" of potholes – but risk losing millions if they don’t provide details of how many potholes they’ve fixed.

From mid-April, £1.6bn will be delivered to councils, a sum that has been boosted by an extra £500 million a year.

However, to get the full amount, all councils must publish annual progress reports and prove public confidence in their work.

Those who don’t do this risk seeing 25% of the uplift – a total of £125 million – withheld.

"British people are bored of seeing their politicians aimlessly pointing at potholes with no real plan to fix them," says PM Sir Kier Starmer. "That ends with us."

"We’ve done our part by handing councils the cash and certainly they need – now it’s up to them to get on with the job, put that money to use and prove they’re delivering for their communities."

"The public deserves to know how their councils are improving their local roads," says transport secretary Heidi Alexander, "which is why they will have to show progress or risk losing 25% of their £500 million funding boost."

Reports must be published on council websites by 30 June 2025.

They should detail how much they are spending, how many potholes have been filled, what percentage of their roads are in what condition and how they are minimising streetworks disruption.

There will also be a requirement to show how they are spending more on long-term preventative maintenance programmes and even that they have robust plans for the wetter winters the UK is experiencing.

Then, by the end of October, councils must also prove that they are allowing the public to have their say. This will be aided by the dedicated online portal for people to report potholes to their local council.

The government action has been welcomed by the automotive industry.

"Getting councils to show value for money before getting full funding is a big step in the right direction, as it will encourage a more concerted attack on the plague of potholes," says AA president Edmund King.

"Linking the release of additional funding to councils informing drivers on the progress they’re making to fix the roads should mean that the record level of government funding is used in the best possible way," says RAC head of policy Simon Williams.

"Drivers are desperate to see an improvement in the quality of their local roads and a reduction in the number of potholes," he adds.

It was recently revealed that the cost of pothole damage has hit a staggering £1.7bn after two years of declines.

70% of motorists pay for repairs out of their own pocket, with the average repair costing more than £300.

Ask HJ

Did hitting a pothole break my car?

In October I hit a pothole at speed. Immediately afterwards warning lights came on and the car started juddering and wouldn’t accelerate properly. Luckily there was a refuge close by and I pulled over. When we came to a halt there was a lot of smoke coming out of the exhausts and a strong smell of fuel in the cabin. I called the roadside assistance and the car was recovered and spent five weeks at the closet dealership while it was tested and repaired. A fuel sensor and spark plugs were replaced and the final diagnosis was that I had put bad fuel in the car as apparently the fuel had separated when the technicians drained the tank. I’m really flummoxed as to how I could have driven 100 miles at speed on bad fuel only for this to manifest the instant that I hit the pothole. It would be great if someone could explain this to me please as the dealership can’t.

It does seem unlikely that putting bad fuel in your car would have caused this issue to occur at the exact moment you struck a pothole, but there are a few factors to consider. Firstly we would be asking what exactly the technicians meant by 'bad fuel' - if this was the case we would want to try and trace where the fuel was purchased and investigate further. It is also worth bearing in mind that fuel added to the tank would not immediately enter the engine unless the tank was almost empty, so even if the fuel was bad you would have been able to drive normally for some time. If you are unsatisfied with the technician's explanation you may wish to consider having the car inspected by an independent engineer.

Answered by David Ross

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