Ministers have told English highway authorities they need to ‘publish how many potholes they’ve filled or lose road cash’ as part of the Department for Transport's push for more local accountability.
Councils will also be required to reveal what percentage of their roads are in what condition, how they are minimising streetworks disruption, 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'.
From mid-April, local authorities in England will start to receive their share of the £1.6bn highway maintenance funding that was announced in the Budget but that ‘to get the full amount, all councils in England must from today publish annual progress reports and prove public confidence in their work’.
It said local authorities who fail to meet ‘these strict conditions’ will see 25% of their share of the £500m ‘uplift’ withheld.
At this point, it appears the reporting itself is all DfT is looking for in return for the uplift cash, as the department gave no specific indication money will be allocated based on the content of the reporting and the quality of the plans.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander (pictured) 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 DfT said in a press statement: ‘It is the first time the Government will be requiring highways authorities to report potholes with this level of information in this way.’
It acknowledged that councils were required to publish reports under the Network North programme, ‘with a focus on roads they had already resurfaced’, but said the new reporting requirements ‘will contain much more information, which can be found in the reporting template for LAs’.
At the time of writing the DfT has not published this template.
The news comes ahead of Wednesday's Spring Statement, an expected "mini Budget" from chancellor Rachel Reeves, when authorities will be keen to hear if they will receive Integrated Transport Block (ITB) allocations for the financial year, which begins next week.
Councils are also waiting on further detail of a promised £650m for local transport for English councils outside city regions that was promised in the Budget.
The DfT has based its claim of an extra £500m on a baseline figure of £1.1bn from the current financial year, but this does not include ITB allocations, which it has previously included and were worth £170m for the current financial year to English councils outside city regions.
Without confirmation from the DfT, many councils have set their transport budgets for 2025-26 on the assumption that ITB will be paid at similar levels. Highways has not been given confirmation on when allocations will be confirmed.
On 25 February, roads minister Lilian Greenwood told MPs: ‘The Department also provides Integrated Transport Block funding to local authorities to allow them to carry out accessibility and other improvements to roads in rural and urban areas and hopes to confirm 2025/26 allocations shortly.’
The lack of confirmation may be because the Treasury had not agreed to release the cash, pending the Spring Statement.
