An additional £200 million has been allocated to the UK’s pothole repair budget, bringing the total funds available to local authorities for road maintenance to £500 million for the financial year 2023/24.
This increase is expected to fix the equivalent of up to four million additional potholes across the country.
However, the funds can also be used for general road improvement, including resurfacing and repairs and renewals, such as keeping bridges and major structures open.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt announced the additional funding in his spring budget, which was delivered to the House of Commons today (Wednesday, March 15).
“Following a wet and then cold winter, I….received particularly strong representations from my hon friends from North Devon, South-West Devon and Newton Abbot as well as councillor Peter Martin from my own constituency about the curse of potholes,” he said in his speech.
“The Spending Review allocated £500m every year to the Potholes Fund, but today I have decided to increase that fund by a further £200m next year to help local communities tackle this problem.”
Spring budget
Delivering today’s budget, Hunt announced that, based on Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts, the UK will now not enter a “technical recession” this year, and that inflation is set to halve.
“Despite continuing global instability, the OBR report today that inflation in the UK will fall from 10.7% in the final quarter of last year to 2.9% by the end of 2023,” he said.
“That is more than halving inflation.”
However, until then, he is taking measures based on where the UK is at today, for example with regards to fuel duty.
“Because inflation remains high, I have decided now is not the right time to uprate fuel duty with inflation or increase the duty,” he said.
“So here’s what I am going to do: for a further 12 months I’m going to maintain the 5p cut … and I’m going to freeze fuel duty too.”
To read more highlights from today’s budget, click here.
