Why local roads need long-term investment
David Giles, chair of the Asphalt Industry Alliance, argues that short-term fixes are no longer enough and that sustained, strategic investment is essential to protect road users and deliver value for money
Our ageing local roads are under pressure from rising traffic volumes, more frequent extreme weather events, but most of all, from long-term underfunding. It means that network resilience is under pressure leaving local roads even more vulnerable to the effects of intense rainfall and colder weather. As temperatures begin to fall and autumn storms pass through, thoughts inevitably turn to how well prepared our local road network is for the upcoming winter months.
The Asphalt Industry Alliance’s (AIA) Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey report 2025 highlights that more than half of roads in England and Wales – 52 per cent are reported to be in less than good condition, with less than 15 years of structural life remaining and that it would now cost a record £16.81 billion to tackle the backlog of existing carriageway repairs.
Over the past three decades, ALARM has reported that long periods of cuts and underfunding have resulted in deteriorating road conditions, followed by inconsistent, short-term cash injections in an effort to stem the decline. It is clearly an approach that hasn’t delivered for road users with conditions now as bad as they have ever been. For example, ALARM 2025 highlighted that if local authorities had sufficient funds and resources to achieve their target conditions, it would result in improvements to 30 per cent of the local road network – the equivalent of 60,900 miles. Yet in practice, local authorities resurfaced just 3,100 miles of road (1.5 per
cent of network length) and carried out treatments to extend the life of the road on just 6,100 miles (3 per cent) of the network.
And, with nearly two thirds (65 per cent) of ALARM respondents stating that, in their opinion, the structural conditions of their networks had declined in the last 12 months, it’s clear that something needs to change.
The challenge for local authorities
Local authority highway teams are faced with a thankless task: they have a legal responsibility to keep our roads safe but don’t have the funds to also carry out the cost effective, proactive and sustainable prevention and improvement works needed over the long term.
ALARM 2025 reported that instead, local highway authorities are forced to rely on short-term, reactive maintenance. For example, 1.9 million potholes were filled over the last year, and, in the last 10 years, more than 17.5 million have been filled – the equivalent of one pothole filled every 18 seconds, every day.
However, while potholes may be a curse, they should not be inevitable: they are the symptom of an underfunded network, one which has deteriorated to a point where it is more susceptible to the effects of the cold weather, rainfall and the repeated freeze-thaw cycle that winter brings. In turn, this leads to disruption and potential costs for damages for road users and contributes to the increasing costs faced by local authorities also tasked with more reactive and emergency repairs.
ALARM reports on the number of local authorities also having to deal with emergency repairs caused by unforeseen events, such as extreme flooding, with just over half (53 per cent) of authorities in England telling us they had such circumstances to deal with last year. In fact, in the last three years alone, more than £600m has been spent on the increasing number and scope of unpredictable events.
Local authorities can only do so much with the resources they have been given but repeatedly filling potholes is indicative of a network on the edge. It is less effective in enhancing resilience than planned preventative maintenance, which also delivers better whole life value for money.
If we want the condition of our local roads to improve, the focus needs to shift from addressing the number of potholes to giving local authority highway engineers the tools they need to carry out the right maintenance interventions at the right time and ultimately to prevent potholes from forming in the first place.
The economic case for investment is clear; research backed by the Department for Transport (DfT) suggests that every additional £1 invested in local roads results in a return on investment of between £2 and £9. So, if the
Government is looking to kickstart the economy, investing in our local roads would be a good place to start, while providing better value for money for taxpayers and improved conditions for all road users.
Future proofing our local roads
ALARM 2025 reported that on average, the total highway maintenance budget across England and Wales decreased by 2 per cent – equivalent to a real-terms cut of 5.5 per cent on the previous year once inflation is taken into account. So, while recent funding announcements covering several years but with various conditions attached, will be welcomed by local authorities, the fact remains it lags behind what highway engineers’ report is needed to prevent further decline.
Our view is that there needs to be a complete change in mindset supported by sufficient long-term commitments, such as the strategic road network and railways benefit from. This would allow for better planning and execution of maintenance at the right time – delivering a more resilient network and improved road conditions that local authorities can manage cost-effectively going forward.
Frontloaded and targeted investment over the long term would allow local authorities to plan and proactively carry out timely and efficient improvement, maintenance and prevention works to the greatest benefit of all road users – rather than bracing for winter and a long season of chasing the increasingly inevitable potholes.
