England’s largest county and rural councils are set to lose almost £500m in local roads maintenance funding by April this year, despite the government’s commitment to tackling the scourge of potholes, the County Councils Network (CCN) has warned.
The CCN’s analysis of indicative roads maintenance funding reveals county and rural councils outside of England’s major cities and urban areas could receive £727m in the next financial year.
This is a reduction of £480m compared to what they received two years ago and equates to filling 11.5 million potholes.
CCN says this reduction, based on an analysis of the government's Spending Review document, will mean that local authorities will have little choice but to cancel or scale back planned road maintenance works from April as a consequence.
County leaders said that they welcomed the announcement in 2019 of ‘the biggest ever pothole-filling programme’, which included £2.5bn in additional funding to councils over the course of the Parliament.
However, county authorities could receive 40% less than they did two years ago and could leave them grappling with a clear public expectation that councils would continue to invest in their road network, but with significantly less money to do so.
In contrast, Mayoral Combined Authorities, which cover England’s major cities and urban areas, are to benefit from significant investment in road and transport infrastructure through a new dedicated £5.7bn fund over the next three years.
The funding reduction for areas outside of the major cities comes despite analysis by CCN showing that 13,000 miles of road were identified across those 36 county areas as requiring maintenance last year.
This equates to 9% of the total mileage in those places and five times the amount of England’s largest cities, including London.
CCN is calling for the government to either find additional resources to maintain their manifesto pledge or reprioritise funding from other budgets, such as the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements.
They said this would help to ensure that county and unitary authorities outside England’s major cities do not face unfair and disproportionate reductions in capital funding.
Commenting, County Councils Network Devolution Spokesperson, Councillor Martin Hill said:
“The government’s commitment to increase pothole funding by £500m was strongly welcomed by county leaders in all four corners of England.
“It is important that communities across the whole country receive levelling up support, and with over 13,000 miles of roads in areas outside of the major cities areas requiring maintenance, ensuring these roads are in good condition is vital.
“But a £479m drop in funding between 2021 and 2023 is hugely significant and is the equivalent of filling over 11 million potholes.
“With the government making such a clear announcement that it was increasing pothole funding in 2019, we are left grappling with the public’s expectation that we are able to continue to invest in our road network.
“Unless this reduction is reversed and the government provides an urgent injection of resources to match the level it distributed in 2020/21, then we will have little choice but to cancel planned works. This would represent a major scaling back of our ambitions.”
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