There is now a road repair backlog in England and Wales that would cost nearly £17 billion to rectify, according to the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA).
The body’s Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) report also reveals that one in every six miles of the local road network is believed to have less than five years of structural life remaining.
This is despite 17.5 million potholes having been filled in the last decade.
Local authorities, it is said, would each have needed an extra £7.4 million last year to maintain their network to their own target conditions and prevent further deterioration.
AIA chair David Giles said: “Over £20 billion has been spent on carriageway maintenance in England and Wales over the last decade.
“However, due to the short-term allocation of this funding, it has resulted in no quantifiable uplift in the condition and resilience of the network.
“In fact, almost all (94%) local authority highway teams reported that, in their opinion, there has been no improvement to their local network over the last year: a view no doubt shared by the majority of road users.”
Giles said the AIA was calling on the government to set a minimum five-year funding horizon, and set out a substantial, sustained increase in investment, with budgets ring-fenced specifically for local roads maintenance.
RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “Once again, these figures paint a bleak picture of the state of the nation’s roads and confirm what a majority of drivers have known for a long time – that in far too many parts of the country, road surfaces are simply not fit for purpose.”
