Condition of roads in rural areas

England’s road network consists of motorways, major A roads, as well as local classified (B and C roads) and unclassified (U) roads. The Strategic Roads Network (SRN) in England is made up of trunk motorways and A roads. The local road network is made up of all other road types including principal motorways and A roads, classified B and C roads, and unclassified U roads.

For data on the general condition of the road network, the Department for Transport (DfT) publish official statistics annually, Road conditions in England to March 2025 (Published 21 January 2026).

In England and Wales, the bodies responsible for managing and maintaining public roads are called highway authorities.

Apart from the SRN in England (managed by National Highways), trunk roads in Wales (managed by Welsh Ministers) and the Transport for London (TfL) Road Network (managed by TfL) highway authorities are local authorities.

The 153 highway authorities have a legal duty to maintain the highway under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980, as amended. If a highway authority is found not to have observed its Section 41 legal duties then it may be liable for damages caused by a highway in disrepair.

The maintenance of road surfaces has implications for their safety. Section 39 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 imposes a statutory duty on every highway authority in England, Wales and Scotland to promote and improve road safety.

Legislation which provides for road maintenance and safety applies equally to roads in rural areas.

In England, funding for the maintenance of local roads comes out of generic Highways Maintenance funds, which the DfT allocates by formula to highway authorities. In strategic authority areas, rather than allocating to highway authorities, funding is provided to either the mayoral strategic authority or the combined authority through City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS).

The Highway Maintenance block grant is the only capital grant that authorities receive for maintenance. The DfT allows highway authorities to spend this funding as they see fit in line with their statutory duty for highway maintenance. The funding can be used for all parts of the highway network.

In April 2025, local authorities in England began receiving their share of the £1.6 billion highway maintenance funding for 2025/26, which the government said represented a £500 million uplift on the previous total. However, all local authorities in England had to publish annual progress reports with those who failed to meet certain conditions potentially seeing 25% of the uplift withheld.

The December 2025 Budget allocated £7.3 billion of capital funding for local highway maintenance for the financial years 2026/27 to 2029/30.

Although central government funding is significant, local authorities have the power to spend more money on highways maintenance than the sum provided to them through the DfT. The additional money comes out of their general funds.

The standards of repair that local highway authorities must follow are set out in Well-managed highway infrastructure: a code of practice, published in October 2016 by the UK Roads Liaison Group (UKRLG). This is not a statutory document but is published with the backing of central and local government, and is endorsed by the DfT.

Multiple factors contribute to the prevalence of potholes in the UK. Urban areas with heavy traffic tend to experience more wear and tear on their road infrastructure, making them prone to potholes. Rural regions that experience severe weather conditions, such as heavy rainfall or freezing temperatures, are also more susceptible to the formation of potholes.

The prevalence of potholes may be exacerbated by poor road resurfacing. In April 2023, new regulations, including the Code of practice for street works inspections [PDF] created a new inspection regime to ensure utility companies resurfaced roads to the best possible standard after street works.

At the time, only 30% of utility companies’ street works were inspected. However, utility companies who repeatedly complete poor road resurfacing can now see 100% of their street works inspected. Highway authorities can also charge £50 per defect inspection and a further £120 for additional inspections.

To enhance transparency, utility companies and local authorities are also now required to provide the DfT’s street manager service with accurate data on live works.

In January 2026, the DfT published an interactive map which displays how well each local authority is repairing potholes. The new ratings grade all local authorities as red, amber or green based on current road condition and how effectively they are spending the funding allocated to them.

A 2025 survey by road safety charity IAM RoadSmart found that UK drivers spent an average of £320 on vehicle repairs due to potholes, between 2023 and 2024.

The gov.uk page Claim for damage to your vehicle details how to contact, TfL, National Highways and local authorities to make a claim if a vehicle has been damaged by a road. The page also contains contact information for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The public can report potholes to their local council through a dedicated online portal.

Section 39 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 imposes a statutory duty on every highway authority in England, Wales and Scotland to promote and improve road safety.

Many highway authorities are part of Road Safety Partnerships which operate across the country based around police force areas; some are called Casualty Reduction Partnerships. Partnerships are made up of multiple agencies who coordinate the pooling of resources with the aim of reducing the number of road casualties.

In addition to highway authorities, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), police, fire brigade and employers (given that a high proportion of road journeys are work-related) also maintain partial responsibility for road safety.

The DfT Road Safety Strategy was published in January 2026. The strategy aims to improve road safety in Great Britain. It also commits the government, from early 2026, to “explore whether the proposed rural roads categories are appropriate at a local level and assess their potential for national application.”

The strategies overarching targets are a “65% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured on roads in Great Britain by 2035” and a “70% reduction in the number of children (under 16) killed or seriously injured on roads in Great Britain by 2035”. Both will use 2022-2024 data as a baseline to measure progress.

The Library briefing Potholes and local road maintenance funding (4 April 2025) describes the governance and funding framework in which local authorities in England maintain and repair the local road network.

The DfT Maintenance expenditure by road class in England (RDC0310) dataset includes maintenance expenditure for local roads in England, from April 2005 to March 2025.

In December 2025, the National Engineering Policy Centre (NEPC) released a report looking at Reviving our ageing infrastructure which discusses “enablers of change to ensure existing infrastructure is maintained.”

The Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey report, commissioned by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), provides information on funding and conditions of the local road network. The ALARM survey report for the 2025/26 year will be available from 00.01 on Tuesday 17 March 2026.