The UK Government is being urged to release a further £1 billion a year to help council's tackle deteriorating road networks.

The Local Government Association (LGA) is calling on Ministers to inject further funding in local road maintenance as new figures show current investment rates are not sufficient enough.

The LGA's analysis reveals that the time it would take to clear the backlog of road repairs has risne from 10.9 years in 2006, to 14 years this year. In addition, the Asphalt Industry Alliance's (AIA) 2016 ALARM survey, published in March, states it will cost £12 billion to clear the current backlog, up from £11bn in 2015. English council's are facing an estimated one-off cost of £69m to bring its roads up to a reasonable condition.


To generate funding for repairs, the LGA suggested ringfencing just 2p per litre of existing fuel duty for local roads funding. However, this should not be paid for by increasing fuel duty rates.

Cllr Martin Tett, the organisation's transport spokesman, said: "It is becoming increasingly urgent to address the roads crisis we face as a nation. Our roads are deteriorating fast and it would take almost £12 billion, and it could be nearly 2030, before we could bring them up to scratch and clear the current roads repair backlog.

"Councils fixed a pothole every 15 seconds again last year despite significant budget reductions leaving them with less to spend on fixing our crumbling roads. Local authorities are proving remarkably efficient in how they use this diminishing funding pot but they remain trapped in a frustrating cycle that will only ever leave them able to patch up our deteriorating roads.

"The Government's own traffic projections predict a potential increase in local traffic of up to 55% by 2040. Councils desperately need long-term and consistent funding to invest in the resurfacing projects which our road network needs over the next decade."

(LM)