Government has announced their latest Pothole plan.

Councils face new rules for spending pothole funding, or risk losing their cash

We’re making sure every pound goes straight into fixing roads and tackling potholes across England, not being spent elsewhere.

Mr Pothole's response is set out below.

Short answer: it will likely improve how existing money is spent, but it does not materially reduce the £19 billion backlog or stop it growing by £1.22 billion per year on its own.

Here’s a clear breakdown of what the announcement actually does—and what it doesn’t.

What the policy will do (real impact)

1. Reduce misallocation of funds

By forcing councils to prove all highways funding is spent on road maintenance, the policy tackles a known issue: money being diverted to other services.

 This should:

Increase the effective proportion of the £1.6 billion annual funding spent on roads

Deliver more pothole repairs per pound

2. Introduce performance pressure

The threat of losing up to ⅓ of funding creates a strong incentive to:

Fix more roads

Improve asset management

Avoid short-term patching in favor of planned maintenance

 This may improve efficiency and prioritisation, especially in poorly performing councils.

3. Improve long-term planning (multi-year funding)

Councils now get multi-year certainty, which is important because:

Preventative maintenance is cheaper than reactive pothole repair

Stop-start funding leads to worse road deterioration

 This could slow the rate of deterioration over time.

4. Target the worst performers

Support for “red-rated” authorities (with expert help) should:

Lift the lowest-performing councils

Reduce extreme cases of poor maintenance

What it won’t do (key limitations)

 It does NOT add significant new money

Total funding remains around £1.6 billion/year

Only £525 million is being withheld/reallocated, not added

 Compared to:

£19 billion backlog

£1.22 billion annual worsening

This is far too small to close the gap

 It doesn’t address the structural funding gap

Even with perfect efficiency:

If deterioration grows by £1.22bn/year, and funding doesn’t increase accordingly

The backlog will continue to grow

 Risk of perverse incentives

Councils may focus on visible potholes over deeper structural repairs

Could lead to short-term fixes rather than full resurfacing

Net effect on the backlog

Most realistic outcome:

 Short term:

More potholes filled, better public perception

 Medium term:

Slight slowing of deterioration (if planning improves)

 Long term:

Backlog still grows, just possibly at a slightly slower rate

Bottom line

This policy is about efficiency and accountability, not scale.

It will:

Make sure existing money is used properly

Improve consistency across councils

But it will not meaningfully reduce the £19 billion backlog or stop the £1.22 billion annual increase unless:

Funding rises significantly or

Road usage/deterioration pressures fall