The government has released an extra £220m in funding to help councils in England fix potholes across the country.
That comes on top of the £4.9bn that has already been spent on repairing roads this year, which has resulted in close to 7,000 miles of road being resurfaced, according to the Department for Transport.
Figures from local councils have shown that over 10 per cent more resurfacing has been completed than last year, with £800 million more being spent than before the current Labour government came into power.
The new funding will only be allocated if councils reach performance targets and ‘can be withheld if they fail to reach them’, according to the DfT.
Heidi Alexander, Transport Secretary, said: For too long potholes have been a source of national embarrassment, forcing hard-working people to fork out for repairs and posing a danger to all road users. But today’s figures show that we are starting to turn a corner.
“While we know there is much more to do, our record funding, combined with tough new rules holding councils to account, mean that drivers are making smoother journeys while giving people roads they can rely on.”
Reports submitted by councils show that 94 per cent of local authorities will complete preventative works – which stop the same part of the road from being patched over repeatedly – this year, contrasting with the 76 per cent of councils which completed the work last year.
