PAC: Local roads branded “national embarrassment” as Government urged to tackle £15bn repair backlog
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The state of England's local roads is declining, as a
multibillion-pound repair backlog grows. As people grow
increasingly unhappy with the levels of disrepair and with
increasing damage to vehicles from potholes, the Public Accounts
Committee (PAC) today calls out the Department for Transport (DfT)
for not taking its responsibilities and use of public money on
local roads sufficiently seriously. Government data presented to
the PAC's inquiry shows the condition of local...Request free trial
The state of England's local roads is declining, as a multibillion-pound repair backlog grows. As people grow increasingly unhappy with the levels of disrepair and with increasing damage to vehicles from potholes, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today calls out the Department for Transport (DfT) for not taking its responsibilities and use of public money on local roads sufficiently seriously. Government data presented to the PAC's inquiry shows the condition of local roads as stable - despite industry estimates showing that the condition of local roads is worsening, as public satisfaction falls and pothole-related incidents rise. With information only collected on unclassified roads on a voluntary basis from local authorities, the DfT admitted to the PAC that its data is not good enough. The inquiry also heard that local authorities may be doing just enough maintenance work to keep their roads from being rated 'red'. Over a billion pounds a year goes to local authorities as part of the Government's funding to maintain local roads – but the PAC's inquiry found that the DfT neither knows exactly how local authorities spend its funding as it is not ring-fenced, nor what it wants to achieve with it. The report further warns that funding is not being targeted at where it is most needed. The DfT does not take into account traffic volumes, underlying road condition or local environmental conditions such as whether a road is prone to flooding. The PAC also criticises the short-term approach of central government funding for local authorities to repair local roads, which the DfT admitted to the inquiry is not best value for money. Providing only annual funding is likely to have pushed councils to focus more on reactive repair work, rather than preventing problems occurring in the first place. The report calls on Government to simplify its funding to local authorities (currently given through twelve different funding pots), and to provide longer-term certainty on the amount and duration of funding. More support and guidance must be provided to local authorities to deal with current and future challenges in maintaining local roads, in particular on how best to support safety and accessibility for all road users. Looking ahead, the Government should also be considering how best to manage and prepare for technology advances such as autonomous vehicles and the effect of maintenance on roads and bridges of heavier electric heavy goods vehicles. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “The declining state of England's local roads is a national embarrassment. As well as harming the prospects for our economy and communities' own social wellbeing, highways riddled with potholes pose an increasing safety threat to road users. Alarmingly, however, not only is the state of our local roads on the downslope, our inquiry shows Government are having to find out about these issues from industry bodies and road users themselves due to their own patchy data. “This Committee has long raised concerns around a failure across Government Departments to effectively fund and plan for the future, a theme that is certainly on show here, along with an overly tangled web of accountability. This Committee shares our constituents' frustration at these issues, and hope our recommendations go some way to help the Government take better responsibility for them.” PAC report conclusions and recommendations The Department has not taken its overall responsibility for policy and use of taxpayer funds sufficiently seriously when looking at local roads. The Department acknowledges that local road conditions are getting worse and that there is a growing backlog of repair work. It last estimated, in 2019, that it would cost between £7.6 billion and £11.7 billion, but more recent industry estimates, in 2023-24, suggest that this could have grown to over £15 billion. The Department provides over £1 billion annually to local authorities as part of its funding for managing and maintaining local roads. However, it does not know what that funding is achieving, lacking both a clear oversight over how it is being used and a clear understanding of what outcomes it wants to achieve. Identifying who is accountable for local roads across England is difficult, as it is shared between local and national government, but we consider that the Department has not taken enough responsibility given the declining conditions of local roads across England. Recommendation 1. In addition to addressing the recommendations below, the Department should clearly set out its roles and responsibilities and that of local authorities in ensuring that local roads are maintained to a good standard throughout England as part of government's work on local devolution. The Department has insufficient knowledge of the condition of local roads. Industry estimates show that the condition of local roads across England is getting worse, which is also reflected in falling public satisfaction and higher levels of pothole related incidents. However, while the Department's own data shows the condition of local roads has remained relatively stable, it accepts that this may not reflect people's experiences. DfT acknowledges that its data in some areas is poor and that it does not fully understand the condition of local roads in England. It is therefore implementing new data standards - PAS 2161 - with the aim of improving the quality and granularity of the data that it gathers from local authorities, although this will not be mandatory until April 2026. In addition, the Department will still not collect information on the condition of other parts of the road, including walkways, cycle paths and bridges from local authorities. The Department says that it does not ask local authorities for further information as it is trying to strike the balance between asking for enough information and not creating a large burden of work for each local authority. We are unconvinced that DfT has fully considered what additional burdens would be created in practice, as much of this data may already be collected by local authorities. Recommendation 2. The Department should make the case, with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for obtaining the data it needs to gain a greater understanding of the condition of the local road network. The Department's approach to funding is short-term and fragmented, hindering local authorities from planning more cost-effective work. In the last decade funding for local roads has become more complex, with the Department providing funding to local authorities via 12 different funding pots, each with differing eligibility criteria. It has largely provided funding to local authorities on an annual basis. This differs from how the Department supports the maintenance of other transport routes, such as the strategic road networks where funds are allocated on a five-year basis to enable long-term planning. The Department acknowledges that longer-term funding enables better value for money but has not taken steps to change the way it funds local roads. In addition, some of the funds have focused on specific issues, for example on repairing potholes, which are the result of poor maintenance. This short-term approach is likely to have pushed local authorities to focus more on reactive action rather than the preventative work that would offer greater value for money. Recommendation 3.
The Department does not allocate funding to local authorities for the maintenance of local roads according to where it is most needed. The Department provides most of its funding to local authorities based on road length, number of bridges, and number of lighting columns in a local authority. It does not, however, take into account traffic volumes or underlying road condition. Nor does it include other factors such as local environmental conditions, for example whether a road is prone to flooding, and the additional wear and tear that would arise. The Department has also not explored with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government whether local authorities that charge a Community Infrastructure Levy money on new developments, may be permitted to spend this money on local road maintenance. Recommendation 4.
The Department has not evaluated its approaches to funding local roads to know whether they are delivering value for money. Despite providing over £1 billion of funding each year to local authorities for the maintenance of local roads, the Department has not evaluated the totality of funding it has made available and what it has achieved from this. It has evaluated one of the 12 funding pots it has used over the last decade. In particular, it has not evaluated its fund which used incentives to improve local authorities' asset management practices, despite issues identified in the NAO report and its plans to use such an approach going forward. The Department has also not evaluated the effectiveness of funding of local road maintenance through Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs). Recommendation 5. The Department should evaluate approaches to funding local roads to determine what has been effective to help inform future approaches. This should include conducting interim evaluations on local authority PFI schemes. The Department has not provided enough support and guidance to local authorities to deal with current and future challenges in maintaining local roads. The Department is responsible for providing local authorities with guidance on the management and maintenance of local roads. However, it has not updated its guidance for several years, including on best practice, that could have helped local authorities in completing their work more effectively. The Department is looking to update its Code of Practice for managing highway infrastructure for local authorities, but we are not clear whether this will be comprehensive in its consideration of road usage. For example, there are issues around safety, such as accessibility and visibility of walkways and cycle paths, which as technological and environmental requirements have developed may not have been considered. Future challenges also exist which the Department will have to consider, including how local roads will be fit for the introduction of autonomous vehicles and heavier electric heavy goods vehicles. Recommendation 6.
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