Road and Vehicle FAQs
This briefing paper answers Frequently Asked Questions about roads and vehicles.
No. The government consulted on changing the date of the first MOT test, as well as other potential changes to the MOT process. However, it concluded that concerns about road safety and extra costs for motorists due to defects not being identified during MOTs outweighed any benefits from changes to how often MOT tests must be taken.
Under the current law, every car that is more than 3 years old must have an up-to-date MOT certificate every year. The government consulted on changing the date of the first MOT from 3 years to 4 years. The consultation document also sought views on whether it is appropriate to move to testing every 2 years rather than every year, after the first MOT.
The consultation followed press speculation in April 2022 that the government was considering replacing the current yearly MOT test with a two-yearly test instead, as a measure to reduce financial burdens on vehicle owners.
What funding is available to tackle potholes?In England, funding for fixing potholes on local roads comes out of generic Highways Maintenance funds, which the DfT allocates by formula to highway authorities. 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, such as bridges, cycleways, and lighting columns – and not just the fixing of potholes.
Highway maintenance funding allocations are available on gov.uk.
There have been occasions when the government has announced specific ‘pothole’ funds. Recent examples include:
- £4.7 billion of funding for the Local Transport Fund, announced on 26 February 2024. The LTF is dedicated to funding across the North and Midlands across the next 7 years (2025/26 to 2031/32). Local transport authorities can choose to fund a wide range of local transport measures, not only filling potholes and road maintenance.
- £8.3 billion for highways maintenance funding from Network North (money “reinvested” from the cancelled phases of HS2). This was announced on 4 October 2023, and covers the years up to and including 2033 to 2034.
- £200 million for local road maintenance in England, including potholes, allocated in the 2023 budget for 2023-24.
- A £2.5 billion Pothole Fund, announced in the March 2020 Budget. The then Chancellor Rishi Sunak said this would be “enough to fill, by the end of the Parliament, 50 million potholes.” This was to provide £500 million in yearly instalments between 2020/21 and 2024/25.
- An additional £100 million to help repair potholes and other storm damage, prompted by severe weather in early 2018.
In July 2019, the Transport Select Committee published a report recommending fundamental reform of local road maintenance funding, and the introduction of a long term, front-loaded funding settlement to allow councils to better plan road repairs and get better value for money. The government broadly welcomed this proposal and pledged to look into it further.
In in March 2019 the DfT worked with the Association of Directors, for Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) to publish Potholes: a repair guide for use by highway authorities.
In The Plan for Drivers (2 October 2023), the government committed to providing funding for councils to pilot new ways of maintaining roads. This followed on from the first phase of the ADEPT Live Labs programme, announced in January 2019, where the government provided £22.9 million for research and trials on new surface materials or pothole repair. The programme comprised a variety of projects implemented by the private sector together with local authorities throughout the country. It aimed “to trial and accelerate the adoption of new solutions and technologies to deliver improved outcomes for the highways sector.”
Further information can be found in the Commons Library research briefing Potholes and local road maintenance funding.
Is Vehicle Excise Duty ring-fenced for spending on roads?No. Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) or is not a ‘hypothecated’ tax. In other words, it is not ring-fenced for certain forms of public spending. In particular, despite sometimes being called ‘Road Tax’, VED is not ring-fenced for road spending and is paid into general government revenues.
Historically there is a precedent for ring-fencing VED for roads spending. The Roads Act 1920 provided a legal link between revenue from vehicle excise duty (VED) and funding for road building and maintenance. But this was deemed unsuccessful as a form of road finance and was abandoned in 1937.
Far more recently, in 2015 the then Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne called for VED to once again be hypothecated for road spending from 2020, through a proposed National Roads Fund. He told the Commons in the 2015 Budget statement:
Vehicle excise duty was used to fund our roads, but not any more. […] I will return this tax to the use for which it was originally intended. I am creating a new roads fund. From the end of this decade, every single penny raised in vehicle excise duty in England will go into that fund to pay for the sustained investment our roads so badly need. We will engage with the devolved Administrations on how the money is allocated there.
But this policy is no longer being pursued, as confirmed in response to a 2022 parliamentary question from Treasury Minister James Cartlidge:
The government has no plans to hypothecate revenue from VED. VED ensures motorists contribute towards general taxation. The existing arrangement of funding for charging infrastructure - through general taxation and borrowing - allows funding priorities to be more closely aligned with need, rather than depending on where revenue is raised.
RAC Foundation Director Steve Gooding told Highways magazine in 2021 that “hypothecating vehicle excise duty to re-create a virtual “road fund” was an idea that burned brightly but briefly before fizzling out.”
Other topics addressed in this paperThis paper also answers FAQs on the following topics:
ResponsibilitiesCentral, devolved and local government responsibilities for roads; the Strategic Road Network; speed limits; moving traffic offences.
Road use and maintenanceFunding for potholes; compensation for loss of business due to road works; restricting lorries from roads; street lighting.
SafetySmart motorways; vehicle safety around schools; speed camera revenues; quad bikes and off-road bikes.
Air Quality and Climate ChangeClean Air Zones; engine idling; ban on petrol and diesel vehicles; electric vehicle (EV funding); EV chargepoint funding.
VehiclesIntelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA); silent vehicles; noisy vehicles; dazzling headlights; potential changes to MOT rules.
Further readingYou may also be interested in the Library briefing papers on:
More resources are available on the Transport page of the Commons Library website.