Why it would cost more than £1bn to repair all of Yorkshire's potholes

Local authorities filled 1.5 million potholes in the 2019/20 financial year, compared with 1.9 million during the previous 12 months, according to the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA).

Over the same period, councils saw their average highway maintenance budgets fall by 16 per cent, while the typical amount they paid out in compensation for damage caused by poor road conditions increased by 17 per cent to £8.1 million.

Getting all roads back into a “reasonable, steady state” would cost £11.14 billion and take 11 years, the research found. This is up from £9.79 billion and 10 years in 2018/19.

The AIA says the estimated one-time cost to get roads in Yorkshire and Humberside back into reasonable condition is £1.26bn. This works out at £89.7m per local transport authority, a higher average than the rest of England.

The analysis is based on council responses to an annual AIA survey.

AIA chairman Rick Green said highway maintenance budgets have dropped back to where they were two years ago after being given short-term cash injections.

“This stop-start approach has been wasteful and does nothing to improve the condition of the local road network on which we all rely,” he said.

“In fact, it has just contributed to a rising bill to put things right.”

David Renard, the Local Government Association’s (LGA) transport spokesman, said councils share motorists’ frustration about the state of our local roads, and are fixing a pothole on average every 21 seconds despite growing financial pressures.

He went on: “It is clear that our roads are deteriorating at a faster rate than can be repaired by councils.”

The LGA is calling for local authorities to be given devolved infrastructure and public transport budgets to ensure a funding allocation in advance for five years.

The AIA is a partnership between the Mineral Products Association (MPA) and Eurobitume UK whose work includes highlighting the shortfall in local road maintenance funding.

In Yorkshire, the AIA says 194,997 potholes have been filled in the last year across the region. And the total cost of road user compensation claims is estimated to be £1.4m.

The report says in future a “sustainably-funded, well-maintained local road network will need to be part of securing recovery and regrowth”.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced in his Budget £2.5 billion of extra funding over the next five years to tackle potholes on England’s local roads.

AA president Edmund King warned this “won’t do the job”, adding: “With roads being resurfaced on average once every 76 years...it truly is a once-in-a-lifetime achievement.”

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said that to stimulate the economy after the coronavirus pandemic, Ministers should consider “an ambitious maintenance initiative for the most important local roads”.