Drivers hit with £14bn bill due to poor roads

Data from the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance has revealed that councils face a shortfall of £16.3bn to repair damaged British roads.

It says that only 47% of roads in England and Wales are in good structural condition with the remaining 53% unlikely to last another 10 years.

The government pledged £8.3bn to local highway authorities last year, but this will only support road maintenance and repair for around 5,000 miles of roads for 11 years. Based on responses from 72% of local authorities, a further £7.2m each, or £1.2bn, would be required to meet road condition targets.

The report has been published by Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), which revealed UK drivers were hit with a repair bill of over £14bn last year due to poor road surfaces.

AIA chair Rick Green said: “While the transport secretary stated that this additional £8.3bn over 11 years is enough to resurface 5,000 miles of local roads, this equates to just 2.5% of the network – or less than 0.25% per year. Unfortunately, it will do little to address the scale of the issue with Alarm findings reporting that 11% of local roads are already in poor condition and likely to require maintenance in the next 12 months alone.”

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