Drivers furious after UK’s pothole repair fund slashed from £4bn to £2bn – more than nearly any other wealthy country
THE UK’s pothole repair fund has been slashed by more than nearly any other wealthy country.
Spending halved from £4billion in 2006 to £2billion in 2019 — the last comparable figures.
Just a third of drivers are now satisfied with their roads — the lowest percentage since 2012.
The spending level puts us third bottom of 13 nations in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development — with only Italy and Ireland below.
The US, Japan, New Zealand, Austria and Sweden have ramped up cash for fix jobs by around half in the same period.
France, Canada and Finland kept spending at similar levels.
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The Local Government Association, which did the study, believes a £14billion injection is needed here.
It blamed the Government prioritising motorways over local streets, which receive 31 times less in repair funds.
LGA chair Shaun Davies said: “Decades of reductions in funding from central government to local road repair budgets have left councils facing the biggest annual pothole repair backlog.”
The AA’s Edmund King said: “While winter damage on main roads is fixed fairly rapidly in the spring, residential and rural roads remain blighted by holes.
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“This is not only a threat to vehicles but a danger to pedestrians and cyclists who are more active at this time of year.”
A Government spokesperson said: “We’re spending more than £5billion from 2020 to 2025, with an extra £200million announced in March’s Budget.
“This year we’ve made £58.7billion available to councils — a £5.1billion increase on last year — the majority of which is not ringfenced so can be used on road maintenance.”