0800 678 1410
The Government has announced that it is allocating £1.2 billion for Councils across England (excluding London) to repair roads and potholes. The funding is for the 2017 to 2018 financial year, and should help to improve the terrible state of many roads and reduce the number of accidents and vehicles being damaged.
Each highway authority has been allocated an amount which is made up of three separate parts; the Highways Maintenance Needs Formula, the Pothole Action Fund and the National Productivity Investment Fund.
The highway authority with the largest allocation from the £1.2 billion fund is North East Combined Authority, which has been allocated a total of £49.4 million. Slough UA has been allocated the smallest portion of the fund, with £1.25 million.
The South West has not only received the largest allocation, with a total of £186.9 million, it also has the most funding per person at approximately £35.33. This is considerably higher than the North West, which has the lower budget per person at £20.11, and the average across England of £23.55 per person.
With 178,757 miles of road across England (again excluding London), the road maintenance budget amounts to £5,907 per mile.
The Department for Transport has also announced a new pothole scanning initiative in conjunction with Thurrock and York Councils. This involved high-definition cameras and integrated satellite navigation systems being attached to the bottom of waste collection vehicles. Combined with intelligent software, these pothole-scanning systems will scan the roads as the vehicles carry out their work, and help to identify problems with the road surface before they develop into potholes.
Here is our infographic which shows how this government fund will be distributed across each region.
