Publish pothole progress or lose cash, PM Starmer tells England councils

Local authorities in England should show how they are improving roads and losing the government as a “pit plague” or lost by millions of pounds in funding.

The Transport Department said that the councils started getting their share of £ 1.6BN road maintenance pots from mid -April, including the additional £ 500M.

However, to obtain all additional funding, DFT stated that English local authorities should publish an annual report, expanding the progress on pit fixing, with a quarter of money is held back to those who fail to do so.

The local government association said that the government should focus on preventive measures rather than “reactively” pits, which are more expensive.

All local officials who are eligible will get 75% of the additional £ 500 meters promised in the last autumn budget. The remaining 25% can be stopped.

Funding that is held back will be rearfined to the councils who have proved the necessary progress.

Prime Minister Sir Kire Stmper said that broken roads are “not only putting life at risk, but also working families, drivers and businesses hundreds – if not thousands of pounds – also spending in repairing avoidable vehicles”.

He said that the councils have cash to get with jobs.

According to RAC data, There are six pits for each mile of the road in England and Wales.

The DFT stated that the road maintenance progress report of the council should be published by the end of June and say how many pits they are spending, how they are reducing the interruption of the road, and what are their long -term road maintenance plans.

By the end of October, the councils should also demonstrate that local communities have been consulted where repair should be done.

It states that 25% funding will be stopped to the council which “fail to meet these strict conditions”.

The policy will only apply to the English councils in the form of funding for Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish local authorities.

During the election campaign, Labor promised to repair one lakh pits in England in a year,

The LGA stated that additional government funds “will help address the pre -growing backlog of local road repair” which is at £ 17bn and “can take more than a decade to recover.”

It states: “Councils already spend more which they receive from the central government on dealing with pits and repairing our roads.

“However, it is in the interests of all to ensure that public money is spent well. This includes the government to play its full role using a review of spending to ensure that the councils get sufficient, long -term money certainty, so they can focus their efforts to focus their efforts on more cost -effective, prevention measures, which is more expensive.”

Chhaya Transport Secretary Gareth Beckon described the government’s announcement as “plaster sticking into the pit”.

He said: “Labor prefers to talk about a big game on fixing the roads, but they are more interested in chasing headlines.”

Paul Kohaler, a spokesman for Liberal Democrat Transport, called for a “more sustainable approach” to repair, stating that individual pits were welcomed to fix, but greatly reduced to addressing the “Roading Road Infrastructure”.