The Road Emulsion Association (REA) has welcomed the £1.6 Billion funding for roads maintenance, but urges local authorities to refrain from using it all on immediate temporary pothole repairs.
In December 2024, the government announced the landmark investment, which is an increase of nearly 50% on local road maintenance funding from last year, and claims it will pay for the repair of the equivalent of 7million potholes over the next two years.
The REA encourages local highway authorities to invest in long-term treatments that prevent potholes and extend the life of the network.
Kevin Maw, Consultant and Secretary of the REA commented:
“Any additional funding to help improve the standards of England’s local roads is an important step forward in reversing the trend seen over the past 12 years.
It is also a positive message from government that this funding should be used to specifically repair and maintain the local road network. However, the REA hopes this additional funding is not used to provide an immediate pothole temporary patch repair to meet the spending target, but is used to focus on long-term treatments that prevent potholes and extend the life of the road into the future providing the local authorities with safer, greener, and more cost effective highways.
It is vitally important that the new funding is used to provide long term benefits and not short-term fixes.”
The funding will be allocated as follows:
- over £327 million for local authorities in the North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber
- over £372 million for local authorities in East Midlands and West Midlands
- over £244 million for local authorities in the East of England
- over £322 million for local authorities in the South East and London
- over £300 million for local authorities in the South West
The REA continues to campaign for a return to the level of preventative maintenance processes (e.g. surface dressing) seen before the decline began in 2012, and the inevitable rise in the number of potholes that has occurred.