England’s Crumbling Roads: Just 3% Were Maintained Last Year

If you’ve dodged a pothole this week, you’re not alone. England’s local roads are in a worrying state, with only 3% of England’s 183,000-mile local road network receiving any form of maintenance in the 2023/24 financial year, according to RAC Road Maintenance Analysis (2023/24). That includes resurfacing, preservation, or strengthening work. It’s a shocking figure. 

Despite a small year-over-year increase in activity, we are still witnessing a long-term decline, and it is worsening, costing drivers time, money, and patience.

In 2023/24, councils maintained just 4,894 miles of local roads. That’s an 18% rise on the previous year, but still 35% below 2017/18 levels.

Here’s the breakdown:

So while there’s been a slight improvement, it’s nowhere near what’s needed to reverse years of underinvestment.

It’s not just the quantity of roads maintained, it’s which roads. A roads, which carry heavier traffic and are often main routes through towns, fared slightly better:

• A Roads: 5% received maintenance in 2023/24 (down from 7% in 2017/18)
• Minor Roads (B, C and unclassified): Just 2% were touched, despite making up 90% of the local road network.

It seems A Roads get priority and Minor Roads are left behind. This lack of upkeep is no surprise to anyone who drives regularly. From cracked surfaces to axle-breaking potholes, the signs of underinvestment are everywhere.

Preventative treatments, like surface dressing, rejuvenation, and micro-surfacing, are designed to keep roads in good condition and stop potholes from forming. But councils are increasingly skipping this stage:

• 50% of councils didn’t do any preventative work on A roads in 2023/24.
• 36% didn’t treat any minor roads. (Back in 2017/18, that figure was just 28%)

The result? More potholes, more expensive repairs down the line, and an ever-growing maintenance backlog. It’s like skipping your car’s oil change and hoping the engine lasts.

Some Councils Are Doing Better Than Others 

While most areas cut back, a few took a longer-term approach:

• Staffordshire treated 9% of A roads using preservation methods (the highest in England)
• Surrey resurfaced 50 miles of minor roads
• Gloucestershire doubled its A-road resurfacing efforts, rising to 24 miles.

But these are exceptions, not the norm. These councils show that even within tight budgets, improvements can be made when long-term planning takes priority.

Most councils still rely on short-term fixes, patching potholes and filling cracks as they appear. Essentially doing the bare minimum to keep roads usable. But this approach is expensive and inefficient in the long run.

Mike Hansford, CEO of the Road Surface Treatments Association, made the case for smarter strategies in RAC’s report saying: “Preventative road surface treatments offer councils a cost-effective and lower-carbon approach... Roads being kept in good condition for longer reduces future pothole formation.”

In other words: treat the road early, and you avoid the bigger bill later.

In late 2023, GOV.UK Department for Transport announced a £1.6 billion funding boost for councils to fix potholes, called the biggest one-off road maintenance settlement ever. The goal is to repair up to 7 million potholes across England in 2024/25. For more details of the plan, read our blog on the Government’s £1.6 Billion Road Maintenance Fund to Fix Seven Million Potholes.

Head of policy at the RAC, isn’t holding his breath, Simon Williams said: “It’s good to see an increase in the amount of road maintenance being carried out by councils from the previous financial year, but that’s hardly great progress given the 2022/23 figure was a five-year low”

The quote comes from the RAC’s full report, which you can read here.

Poor road maintenance isn’t just an eyesore, it hits your wallet. RAC data shows pothole-related breakdowns jumped by 20% in the last quarter of 2024. Damaged roads can ruin tyres, suspension, wheels, and even safety systems.

Here’s what you can do:

• Download Stan: (App Store or Google Play) a free app to report potholes and poor road conditions directly to your local authority.
• Use Waze: a community-based navigation app where you can report potholes in real-time. Your reports help other drivers and, in some areas, local authorities monitor road issues.
• Report on GOV.UK: You can also report potholes via your council’s website just search “report pothole” along with your local council name.
• Check if you're eligible for compensation: If your vehicle’s damaged by a pothole, you might be able to claim against the council. Citizens Advice has a straightforward guide to help you through the process.

The extra £1.6bn from the government is a welcome injection, but it won’t solve the long-term decline in England’s roads unless councils change their approach. Treat roads like assets. Invest early. Maintain often.

If not, we’ll keep dodging potholes, racking up repair bills, and asking the same question next year: why is this still happening?

Take a look at our Pothole Britain: Why Are Our Roads So Bad? blog for similar content. We also publish weekly blogs on a variety of topics, browse them all in the blog section of our website.

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