MPs have called out the UK Government for “woefully inadequate” sums of road maintenance funding being given to local authorities despite claims from ministers of “record money” for fixing roads.

In December, the Government announced a “record” £7.3bn in capital funding for local highway maintenance over the four‑year period from 2026–27 to 2029–30.

However, during a House of Commons debate on 12 February, MPs made clear that this is still not enough.

Liberal Democrat MP for Wokingham Clive Jones said there is hardly enough money to keep roads in a useable condition.

“The funding given to local authorities is woefully inadequate to maintain the roads, let alone improve them,” he said.

“While Department for Transport (DfT) funding remains well below historical levels in real terms, local authorities such as Wokingham have also had their funding dramatically cut by the Government.”

Labour MP for North Warwickshire and Bedworth Rachel Taylor continued this, but instead of attacking government she took aim at her constituency’s Reform UK-run county council.

“Despite an additional £6.7M being provided to Reform-led Warwickshire County Council, the condition of roads across North Warwickshire remains an absolute disgrace,” she said. “Potholes are the numer one concern for many drivers in my constituency. Our high streets, rural roads and main roads are littered with potholes.”

The government’s announcements at the end of last year came off the back of a perceived failure by the DfT to properly fund local roads due to its inability to assess their condition accurately. A National Audit Office report from 2024 concluded that there were “significant gaps” in the DfT’s information on the condition of local roads, limiting its “understanding of condition of the network”.

The DfT has tried to remedy this with a new government traffic‑light rating system which allows drivers to see how their local highway authority (LHA) is performing on pothole repairs and road maintenance.

The online map, which was launched in January, is described by ministers as the first of its kind. It grades 154 local highways authorities red, amber or green. Ratings are based on three measures: the current condition of local roads, how much each authority is spending on repairs and whether councils are adopting recognised best practice in highway maintenance – in particular a shift from short‑term patching to longer‑lasting preventive work. However, there are questions about the data used to inform the map.

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander who was also present in the debate discussed how the ratings of road conditions allegedly collate to who oversees the local authority.

“The facts speak for themselves when it comes to Reform,” she said.

“Of the 13 local authorities that were rated red last month for their action on fixing local roads, three were Reform-led councils.

“That is a quarter of all councils that are run by Reform failing to get the basics right. By contrast, Labour councils came out top.”

Alexander also sought to blame the previous government for the current state of the road network.

“It is sadly a fact that we have seen a decade of under-investment in our road network,” she said.

“This Government are putting record money into local councils – £1.6bn this year, which is £500M more than the year before – and we will be doubling the amount of money spent on local road maintenance over the course of this Parliament.

“[Jones] raises an important point about the importance of road surface and highways maintenance to road safety, and that is why we are putting our money where our mouth is.”

At the start of last year, local authorities repeated calls for long-term government funding settlements to help with the management of their roads as the reported backlog of carriageway repairs hit £16.81bn.

This backlog was reported in last year’s Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (Alarm) report, put together by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA). This year’s report is due sometime towards the end of Q1.

On the condition of England and Wales’ local roads, last year’s survey found that less than half (48%) of the local road network is reported to be in good structural condition, with the remaining 52% stated to have less than 15 years’ structural life remaining.

Almost all (94%) of local authorities said there had been no improvement in the condition of their roads over the 2024/25 financial year while nearly two thirds (65%) reported a decline.

Not a silver bullet

AIA chair David Giles released a statement to NCE off the back of the debate discussing how, although the funding boost is very much welcome, it is not a “silver bullet” to fix all of the maintenance issues on the UK’s road network.

“The backlog of local road repairs in England and Wales reported in our 2025 Alarm survey stands at an eye watering £16.8bn and the condition of our local roads continues to be a cause of national embarrassment,” he said.

“If we want to halt further deterioration and enhance the resilience of our local roads, the focus needs to shift away from an endless cycle of pothole patch and repair by giving local authority highway engineers the tools they need to do the job so they don’t form in the first place.

“We have long been calling for a different approach to Government funding to enable this, advocating both a longer-term funding horizon and more transparency to give local authority highway engineers the certainty of funding needed to carry out the right maintenance intervention at the right time for the greatest long term benefit.

“That’s why we welcomed the transport secretary’s Autumn Budget announcement that £7.3bn has been allocated over the next four years to local highway maintenance.

“While it’s not a silver bullet that will eradicate the backlog of repairs, it is a positive step and will support local highway engineers in their efforts to stem the long-term decline of our local roads.”

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