Roads: Repairs and Maintenance

In 2024/25, the Department provided a total of £1,067 million to local highway authorities in England under the pothole fund and highways maintenance block (needs and incentive elements). Nominally, this broke down into approximately £407 million from the potholes fund, £407 million from the highway maintenance block “needs” element, £102 million from the highway maintenance block “incentive” element and £150 million from the Network North plan. In practice, these funding streams now serve the same purpose and are used interchangeably by local highway authorities: the Department will formally consolidate them into a single payment from 2025/26 onwards.

The £150 million funding uplift from the previous Government’s Network North plan was divided up among all CRSTS recipients and local highway authorities in England. Individual authority by authority allocations are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/highways-maintenance-funding-allocations.

The Department also paid a total of £170 million of Integrated Transport Block (ITB) funding to local highway authorities in 2024/25, with the details available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/highways-maintenance-funding-allocations/highways-maintenance-and-itb-funding-formula-allocations-2022-to-2025 .

None of the above figures include the £208 million or so of highway maintenance funding per annum, or the £90 million or so of ITB funding per annum, that has been consolidated into the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) that are paid to some Mayoral Combined Authority areas.