Government pledges to fix 'pothole plague', as £3m spent on repairs in Oxfordshire last year

Sir Keir Starmer is telling councils to prove they are tackling potholes or face losing the cash to fix them.

Oxfordshire County Council will start to get their share of £1.6 billion in highway maintenance funding in mid-April.

However, they will be required to publish annual progress reports or face having funding withheld.

The Prime Minister said councils need to "get on with the job" of fixing potholes as he announced an additional £4.8 billion of funding to carry out work on motorways and major A-roads.

Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio, Sir Kier Starmer said: “This is a problem for drivers, people driving their kids to school, people using their car or their van for work.

“Hitting a pothole, generally you don’t budget for it and you’re picking up a bill for several hundred pounds.”

He also said: “Almost every time a government allocates money; someone will say that’s not enough. My answer to that is, it’s a record amount of money, there’s now a period of time to get on and deliver.”

Oxfordshire Pothole Figures:

The latest figures show Oxfordshire County Council received 1,773 claims of compensation due to potholes in 2024.

617 of those claims were successful and resulted in £156,744 being paid in compensation. Therefore, it’s estimated that each claim has cost just above £250 on average.

The number of successful compensation claims has more than doubled compared to 2019, where there was 220, costing the council £64,091.

In 2024, the council repaired 32,667 potholes which has cost nearly £3m (£2,937,079). That is just above a 12% decrease in the number of repairs in comparison to the year before.

You can read the full statistics here

“It's up to them to get on with the job"

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said: “The public deserves to know how their councils are improving their local roads, which is why they will have to show progress or risk losing 25% of their £500 million funding boost.”

Councils will have to detail how much they spend and how many potholes they have filled in reports published on their websites by June 30.

Sir Keir Starmer said: "British people are bored of seeing their politicians aimlessly pointing at potholes with no real plan to fix them. That ends with us.

"We've done our part by handing councils the cash and certainty they need - now it's up to them to get on with the job, put that money to use and prove they're delivering for their communities."

The reports will also have to detail what percentage of roads are in what condition, show their spending on pothole prevention and outline plans looking ahead to wetter winters that make potholes worse.

They must show by the end of October that their communities are able to have their say on where work is needed.

The Local Government Association warns the cost of the local road repairs backlog is nearly £17 billion.

Councillor Adam Hug, the LGA's transport spokesperson, said: "Councils already spend more than they receive from central government on tackling potholes and repairing our roads.

"However, it's in everyone's interests to ensure that public money is well spent."

“They are more interested in chasing headlines than laying tarmac”

The Conservatives say Labour is "steering Britain into a ditch" and want credit for "handing councils a pothole sticking plaster".

"Labour like to talk a big game on fixing roads but they are more interested in chasing headlines than laying tarmac," Gareth Bacon, shadow transport secretary, said.

"Meanwhile, it is Conservative councils that are actually getting on with the job. Last year, Conservative-run councils repaired five times more road miles on average than Labour-run councils.

"Labour are running on empty. They've got no plan for motorists, no grip on the problem, and no credibility. Voters shouldn't be fooled - Labour aren't fixing the roads, they're steering Britain into a ditch."

The Liberal Democrats said there is a huge challenge to fix the country's roads and tackle the repair backlog.

"We must ensure that the right amount of money is going where it is needed. The Government must empower our local councillors who are best placed to make decisions about what needs fixing in their communities," the party's transport spokesperson Paul Kohler said.

"We also need to see more ambition towards a more sustainable approach to fixing our decaying road network through a road resurfacing programme - fixing individual potholes, although welcome, does little more than apply a plaster to the gaping wound of our crumbling road infrastructure."