The state of England's local roads has been labelled "a national embarrassment" amid uncertainty over how councils are utilising taxpayer funds for maintenance and pothole repairs. A scathing report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) criticised the Department for Transport (DFT) for not taking its obligations and use of public money on local roads "sufficiently seriously."
The PAC discovered that billions of pounds are allocated to councils annually, but without earmarking these funds, ministers have no insight into how they are being used, as reported by .
The committee also found a data deficit regarding the condition of local roads, and there is suspicion that local authorities may be performing just enough maintenance to prevent routes from being categorised as red, indicating urgent repair needs.
The PAC warned that funding is "not being targeted at where it is most needed," and pointed out that the DfT does not consider traffic volumes, underlying road conditions or local environmental factors when distributing funds.
The total cost of repairing local roads across England is estimated to have risen to over £15bn, while industry estimates consistently indicate worsening conditions and increasing vehicle damage due to potholes.
"The declining state of England’s local roads is a national embarrassment," stated Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, chair of the committee.
"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."
The report comes after data on Wednesday revealed that the total cost of repairing vehicles damaged by potholes reached a record high last year. Breakdown specialists AA said they had spent £579m fixing vehicles which had broken down because of poor road surfaces in 2024.
"The poor state of our roads is the number one transport concern for 96 per cent of drivers," Edmund King, AA president, said.
"We have highlighted the need for longer-term, ring-fenced investment using innovation and technology to permanently repair local roads rather than the short-term patchwork approach."
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 £1.6bn 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."
