'Pothole pandemic' leads to 70pc jump in damage and injury claims against councils
The number of compensation claims made for pothole damage or injury in England almost doubled last year, according to new figures published today.
Some 23,000 claims were submitted in the financial year 2022-23, up from 13,600 the year before - an increase of 70 per cent.
The figures, uncovered by the Liberal Democrats, come from 85 local authorities in England who responded to a Freedom of Information request.
The true scale of what the Lib Dems have dubbed the “pothole pandemic” will be much larger, since in total in England there are 317 different local authorities.
The local authority found to have received the most pothole compensation claims last year was Surrey, followed by Essex, West Sussex, Hertfordshire, Staffordshire and Kent.
Meanwhile the five highest single payouts were £38,300 in Stoke, £36,000 in Leeds, £31,000 in Surrey, £26,000 in Kensington and Chelsea, and £15,000 in central Bedfordshire. The specifics of each of those claims were not given.
Helen Morgan, the Lib Dems’ local government, housing and communities spokesperson, said: “This Conservative government has overseen a pothole pandemic on our roads. It’s now become almost impossible to drive in some parts of the country without having to swerve to avoid potholes.
“This has led to thousands of drivers having to claim for damage to their vehicles or even personal injury caused by crater-filled roads.
“The government is firmly to blame for this failure to maintain our roads properly after having slashed funding for local road repairs.
“Cash-strapped councils are being left without the funding to maintain roads properly while having to shell out thousands of pounds in pothole payouts.
“Local authorities need to have their highway maintenance budgets urgently restored so that we can end this vicious cycle of pothole payouts and poorly maintained roads.”
The Tories have long countered criticism of their pothole strategy, with government ministers flagging new money for roads as a benefit of the decision to scrap the High Speed Rail Two’s second leg - a move Rishi Sunak announced at the autumn party conference.
Last month Mr Sunak vowed to tackle the “scourge of potholes” when announcing £8.3 billion of extra funding for local roads maintenance in England.
The money is to be given to local authorities over the next 11 years, with the Prime Minister declaring the scale and long-term nature of the funding “unprecedented”.
But the Local Government Association [LGA], which represents councils of all political stripes, has sounded the alarm on the scale of funding reductions on potholes in the last two decades, with 13 of those years being under the Conservatives.
In the summer, the LGA pointed to figures from the OECD, a group of 38 prosperous nations, which found UK spending on local road maintenance dropped from £4 billion in 2006 to £2 billion in 2019.
It meant UK funding had halved, while in countries like Sweden, Denmark, the United States, Japan and New Zealand spending had increased by around half over the same period.
On entering Downing Street in 2010, the Conservatives pursued a policy of austerity that saw local council funding from central government cut back markedly.
Those ministers involved in the spending cuts, which were implemented across Whitehall, argued it was essential in bringing down the UK’s debt and deficit in the wake of the 2007/08 financial crisis.
Mr Sunak said when announcing the £8.3 billion funding: “For too long politicians have shied away from taking the right long-term decisions to make life easier for hardworking families – tackling the scourge of potholes being a prime example.
“Well-maintained road surfaces could save drivers up to £440 each in expensive vehicle repairs, helping motorists keep more of the cash in their pocket.
“This unprecedented £8.3 billion investment will pave the road for better and safer journeys for millions of people across the country and put an end to the blight of nuisance potholes.”
