Local authorities have published which pothole-stricken roads will benefit from the first tranche of an over £8bn package of reallocated HS2 funding.
The £150m of the £8.3bn pot was paid to councils for fixing roads last year (2023/24) and another £150m will be released this year (2024/25).
As a condition of this funding, local authorities are required to publish a two-year plan detailing which local roads will benefit.
Some 102 of the 119 local transport authorities in England have published their plans, according to the Department for Transport.
Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, called the £8.3bn funding pot the ‘biggest ever funding increase for local road improvements’.
However, Rick Green, chair of the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), said the additional funding was only enough to resurface 2.7% of the road network in England and London.
‘It is clear that the additional money, while welcome, is not going to be enough to halt the ongoing decline in conditions. We need to get to the point where local authority highway engineers can plan and proactively carry out repairs and preventative works in the most timely and efficient way to the greatest benefit of all road users.’
If this article was of interest, then check out our feature, 'The great pothole repair failure' by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) chair Rick Green.
