‘British people are bored of seeing their politicians aimlessly pointing at potholes with no real plan to fix them’
Keir Starmer has told councils to ‘get on with the job’ of filling potholes, threatening to pull funding if they don’t prove they’re doing it.
Local authorities in England will have to publish annual progress reports or risk losing some of the their funding, the government has announced. It comes as councils are set to receive their share of the government’s £1.6bn highway maintenance funding next month.
The funding includes an extra £500m with local authorities in Greater Manchester getting nearly £15m of the national uplift.
But to get the full amount, all councils in England must now publish annual progress reports, the government has said.
Local authorities who fail to meet these strict conditions will see 25 per cent of the uplift – up to £125m in total – withheld.
The Prime Minister said that people are ‘bored’ of seeing their politicians pointing at potholes with ‘no real plan to fix them’.
He said: “The broken roads we inherited are not only risking lives but also cost working families, drivers and businesses hundreds – if not thousands of pounds – in avoidable vehicle repairs.
“Fixing the basic infrastructure this country relies on is central to delivering national renewal, improving living standards and securing Britain’s future through our Plan for Change.
“Not only are we investing an additional £4.8 billion to deliver vital road schemes and maintain major roads across the country to get Britain moving, next month we start handing councils a record £1.6 billion to repair roads and fill millions of potholes across the country.
“British people are bored of seeing their politicians aimlessly pointing at potholes with no real plan to fix them. That ends with us.
“We’ve done our part by handing councils the cash and certainty 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.”
Councils will be required to publish the reports on their websites by June 30, detailing how much they are spending, how many potholes they have filled, what percentage of their roads are in what condition, and how they are minimising streetworks disruption.
They will also be required to show how they are spending more on long-term preventative maintenance programmes and that they have robust plans for the wetter winters the country is experiencing – making potholes worse.
By the end of October, councils must also show communities can have their say on what work they should be doing and where.
It comes as the Transport Secretary unveils £4.8bn funding for 2025/6 for National Highways to deliver critical road schemes and maintain motorways and major A-roads.
The Department for Transport says this cash will go towards ‘pivotal’ schemes in construction, such as the A428 Black Cat scheme in Cambridgeshire, and starting vital improvements to the A47 around Norwich and M3 J9 scheme in Hampshire, building thousands of new homes, creating high-paid jobs, connecting ports and airports, to grow the economy and deliver the ‘Plan for Change’.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, said: “After years of neglect we’re tackling the pothole plague, building vital roads and ensuring every penny is delivering results for the taxpayer.
“The public deserves to know how their councils are improving their local roads, which is why they will have to show progress or risk losing 25 per cent of their £500m funding boost.
“Our Plan for Change is reversing a decade of decline and mending our pothole-ridden roads which damage cars and make pedestrians and cyclists less safe.”
