Every driver in the UK knows the feeling. You’re cruising along a familiar stretch of road when, without warning, your front wheel drops into a ragged hole and your steering wheel lurches. You wince, check the tyres at the next lay-by, and carry on — because what else can you do? If the latest figures from the Asphalt Industry Alliance are anything to go by, that experience isn’t going away any time soon. In fact, it’s getting worse.
Published on 17 March 2026, the annual ALARM report (Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance survey) has laid bare the catastrophic state of local roads in England and Wales, and the numbers make for grim reading.
The Scale of the Problem: A Record £18.62 Billion Backlog
According to the Asphalt Industry Alliance’s 2026 ALARM report, it would cost £18.62 billion and take 12 years to repair all local-authority-controlled roads in England and Wales. That figure is a record — and it represents a worsening picture despite what, on paper, looks like meaningful investment.
The cost to fix Britain’s crumbling local roads has jumped from £17 billion just last year, an increase of £1.6 billion in twelve months. Meanwhile, a total of 1.9 million potholes were filled in 2025 — more than 5,200 every single day — at a total cost of £149.3 million. Yet despite this relentless patching, the overall condition of the road network has continued to deteriorate. The scale of the task is simply outrunning the rate of repair.
Research by the AIA found that only 51% of the local road network is currently reported to be in good condition. In plain terms, roughly one in every two miles of local road you drive on fails to meet the standard it should. Roads are now being resurfaced on average only once every 97 years, up from 93 years previously. To put that in context: a road resurfaced the year you were born may not see fresh tarmac again until your grandchildren are in middle age.
David Giles, chair of the Asphalt Industry Alliance, was blunt in his assessment. “I think all road users would agree that the condition of our local roads has become a national disgrace,” he said. “Tracking data over the last decade shows the amount needed to bring local roads up to scratch has increased dramatically, and the impact of frequent adverse weather events on a consistently underfunded — and increasingly fragile — network are coming home to roost.”
Why Are There So Many Potholes?
To understand the scale of this crisis, it helps to understand how potholes actually form. Potholes are often formed when rainfall enters cracks in the road surface and — when the temperature drops below zero degrees Celsius — freezes and expands, creating bigger cracks. Over successive freeze-thaw cycles, those cracks widen, the surface weakens, and eventually the asphalt breaks up entirely under the weight of passing traffic.
This is why winter and early spring are pothole season. The UK’s increasingly wet winters — driven by changing weather patterns — have made matters significantly worse. Roads that were already underfunded and ageing are being subjected to more frequent and more severe weather stress than the infrastructure was ever designed to cope with.
Just over 100,000 miles — representing 49% of local roads — have less than 15 years’ structural life remaining. That is nearly half the network approaching the end of its useful life, and the funding to address it comprehensively simply does not exist.
The Funding Gap: Too Little, Too Slowly
The government has not been entirely idle. Total local road maintenance funding for England in the 2025/26 financial year reached nearly £1.6 billion, representing a £500 million uplift compared with the previous twelve months. A total of £7.3 billion has been announced for the four years up to the 2029/30 financial year.
Highway maintenance budgets for 2025–26 have increased by 17% to an average of £30.5 million per council, with 54% of spending allocated to road surfaces and structural repairs.
On the face of it, that sounds encouraging. The reality, however, is more sobering. The AIA warned that the extra funding was not “the silver bullet that will enable them to clear the backlog of repairs any time soon.” David Giles added that the increased investment, while welcome, would take time to make any visible difference to drivers. He also noted that “the dial could be moved quicker” if the Government’s commitment to additional funding was front-loaded rather than “ramping up in the years to 2030.”
The RAC’s head of policy, Simon Williams, offered a straightforward prescription: “The path to better roads isn’t complicated: ensure water always drains off the roads, fix potholes as permanently as possible, seal roads against water ingress through preventative maintenance, and resurface those that have gone beyond the point of no return.” The problem is not the strategy — it is the chronic lack of long-term, sustained funding to deliver it.
The Cost to Drivers: £1.8 Billion in Damage
This crisis is not merely an inconvenience. It is hitting drivers directly in the wallet — and in some cases, causing serious accidents.
KwikFit’s research found that in the last twelve months, 12.8 million drivers have suffered damage to their car after hitting potholes, facing an average repair bill of £137.40. The most commonly required repairs were to tyres (56% of instances), wheels (32%) and suspension components (24%). The cumulative total of all that damage has reached a record £1.8 billion over the past year — the highest since monitoring began.
Overall, 62% of drivers think the roads in their area are in a worse condition than twelve months ago, with 37% saying they are significantly worse.
The AA’s figures paint an equally stark picture. AA president Edmund King said the ALARM 2026 report “starkly warns us how much more needs to be done to eradicate this plague of potholes,” adding that the AA had been called out to 137,000 pothole-related incidents in January and February 2026 alone — 25,000 more than the same period last year. He described many local roads as having become “patchwork obstacle courses” — a description that, frankly, many drivers will find entirely accurate.
Research also suggests drivers are taking risky actions to avoid hitting potholes, while for those on two wheels, they can cause serious injury or worse. This is an important point we will return to shortly.
A Crisis Behind the Headlines: Road Workers Under Attack
One deeply troubling aspect of the ALARM 2026 report deserves special attention. AIA chairman David Giles revealed that workers repairing roads are being attacked every day, either verbally or physically. “We’ve got workers who were attacked every day either verbally or even physically,” he said. “People who are actually out there repairing the roads get shouted at, spat at and even hit.”
Driver frustration is entirely understandable. But the road workers out filling potholes and laying cones are not responsible for decades of underfunding. They are, in fact, the people trying to fix it. The systemic failure of successive governments to properly fund local road maintenance has created the conditions for this crisis — and it is those workers, and every motorist navigating a deteriorating network, who bear the consequences.
For Learner Drivers: How to Spot, Assess, and Deal With Potholes Safely
If you are learning to drive, the state of UK roads makes practical hazard awareness more important than ever. Potholes are a genuine road hazard — not just a nuisance — and handling them correctly is a skill that your driving instructor will expect you to demonstrate. Here is what you need to know.
Spotting a Pothole Early
Good observation is the foundation of safe driving, and it begins well ahead of any hazard. When you are driving, your eyes should be scanning the road surface well in advance — not just the vehicle immediately in front of you. Look for:
Changes in road surface colour or texture. Freshly broken tarmac often appears darker or has a rougher, jagged appearance compared with the surrounding surface. Old, worn potholes may have a pale, smooth edge where the asphalt has been ground down by repeated tyre contact.
Shadows on the road. In good light, a pothole will cast a shadow into its own depression. Train yourself to notice these, particularly on roads where the surface is uneven or patchy.
Puddles that don’t drain. A puddle sitting on a road surface well after rain has stopped can indicate a depression in the tarmac — potentially concealing a significant pothole. This is one of the most dangerous scenarios because you cannot see the depth of the hole beneath the water.
Other drivers’ behaviour. Watch the vehicles ahead of you. If you notice a car suddenly steering around a particular point on the road, or you see a vehicle’s suspension dip sharply, that is a strong signal that there is something worth avoiding on the road surface. This kind of anticipatory observation is exactly what examiners look for during your practical test.
Road markings and temporary signage. Councils sometimes spray-paint a ring of white or yellow paint around a reported pothole to flag it for repair. If you see an isolated ring of paint on the road surface for no obvious reason, treat it as a warning.
How to Respond Safely
Once you have identified a pothole ahead, safe management involves a sequence of decisions — and it is important to make those decisions early rather than late.
Check your mirrors before changing course. Do not simply swerve around a pothole without first checking whether there is a vehicle alongside or behind you. A sharp, unexpected steering input on a busy road or dual carriageway can be genuinely dangerous. Use the Mirror–Signal–Manoeuvre (MSM) routine even for minor course adjustments.
Reduce your speed progressively. If you cannot safely move around a pothole, slowing down before you reach it significantly reduces the impact on your tyres and suspension. The faster you hit a pothole, the greater the force transferred through the wheel. Braking heavily just as you enter the pothole is the worst possible approach — it shifts the car’s weight forward, compresses the suspension, and increases the risk of tyre or rim damage.
Grip the steering wheel firmly. When you anticipate hitting a pothole you cannot avoid, hold the steering wheel securely with both hands and be prepared for the wheel to pull or jolt to one side. Do not tense your arms rigidly — maintain a firm but relaxed grip so that you can respond to the feedback from the road.
Avoid braking mid-pothole. As above, if you are already entering a pothole, release the brakes rather than applying them. Allow the suspension to absorb the impact with the wheels rolling freely. Braking in the pothole increases the stress on both the tyre and the rim.
Do not overcorrect. After striking a pothole, there can be a natural instinct to yank the steering wheel. Stay calm, keep the wheel straight, and allow the car to settle. Check your mirrors again and, when safe, assess whether you need to pull over to check the tyres.
After Striking a Pothole
If you hit a pothole hard, it is worth knowing what to check for:
- Tyre condition — look for bulges on the tyre sidewall, which indicate internal damage and can lead to a sudden blowout. A visibly flat tyre is obvious, but a bulge can be easy to miss.
- Steering alignment — if the car is pulling to one side after the impact, your wheel alignment may have been knocked out. This is a common consequence and should be checked by a garage.
- Unusual vibration — a vibration through the steering wheel or the seat at speed can indicate a bent or cracked alloy wheel.
As a learner, you are unlikely to be driving alone, so your instructor will be able to assist with these checks. Once you are a qualified driver, knowing how to deal with the aftermath of a pothole is a genuinely useful practical skill.
Reporting Potholes
You can report potholes to your local council directly, or use the national reporting platform FixMyStreet (fixmystreet.com), which routes reports to the appropriate local authority. The more potholes are reported, the more pressure councils are under to address them — and there is a legal argument that reporting creates a duty of care. If a council is aware of a dangerous defect and fails to repair it, and you subsequently suffer vehicle damage, you may have grounds to claim compensation. Keep photographic evidence if you do wish to pursue a claim.
The Bigger Picture
The ALARM 2026 report is, in one sense, a damning indictment of decades of underinvestment in one of the most fundamental pieces of public infrastructure the country has. Roads are not glamorous. They do not attract the political attention of a new hospital or a high-speed rail line. But they are the arteries of everyday life — used by every driver, every emergency vehicle, every delivery lorry, and every learner who sits behind the wheel for the first time.
The AIA’s own analysis suggests that clearing the backlog could reduce annual maintenance costs by £1 billion — meaning that long-term investment is not just a matter of public safety, but also of fiscal common sense. The endless cycle of patch and repair is, ultimately, more expensive than doing the job properly.
Until that investment materialises and makes a visible difference — which, by the AIA’s own estimate, will take years rather than months — every driver in Britain needs to be alert, prepared, and proactive. Know what to look for. Give yourself time and space to react. And when you do hit the inevitable pothole, know how to respond.
The roads may be a national disgrace. But how we drive on them is still our responsibility.
Sources: Asphalt Industry Alliance ALARM 2026 Survey (published 17 March 2026); KwikFit Pothole Impact Tracker; AA pothole callout data 2025–26.
