Road Maintenance

18:35:00

I beg to move, That this House has considered road maintenance. For too long, Britain has been plagued by potholes. Too many people in too many parts of the country have had their everyday journeys turned into frustrating obstacle courses by our pockmarked roads. It is worse than that, however, because cratered roads can be dangerous, can make our trips longer and more stressful, and can consume the hard-earned cash of ordinary families. With the average vehicle repair costing a staggering £600, it is little wonder that the AA tells us that this issue is a priority for 96% of drivers. It is not just motorists who are suffering; damaged roads cause problems for cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians, and dodgy pavements are infuriating for those pushing a pram or using a wheelchair.

My right hon. Friend reminds me of the road on which I live, where drivers trying to avoid a pothole in the road went on to the pavement, which led to the pavement being damaged. Does she agree that fixing potholes quickly wills save pavements as well?

My hon. Friend describes a win-win situation.

At my constituency surgery on Friday, my constituent Helen came to see me because she has had a terrible fall on a badly maintained pavement, and she has really been struggling to find out who is responsible for maintaining the pavement. Does anything in the funding brought forward by this Government enable quick and easy repairs to pavements, so that people like Helen do not have terrible accidents?

Local authorities are free to use the money as they see fit, as long as they are using it in a way that represents value for money for the taxpayer. The money can be used for work on roads, pavements or structures. On the issue of responsibility raised by my hon. Friend’s constituent, that will be for the local highways authority.

I am grateful to the Secretary of State for giving way. I thought I would get in before she gets back into her stride. Can she throw some light on an issue that has puzzled me for some time in my New Forest East constituency? A stretch of road—Southampton Road—is often used as a short cut by very heavy goods vehicles, rather than using the appropriate section of the M27 motorway. These are often very large petrol bowsers, tankers—you name it—and surprise, surprise, the roadway is constantly getting broken up and potholes appear, with all the consequences she describes. Whenever we have raised this with any of the companies to which these heavy vehicles belong, they say, “Well, it’s a public highway, and we’re entitled to drive these vehicles where we want.” Is there any obligation on companies not to do that?

I do not know whether the right hon. Gentleman has raised the matter with the local highways authority. I believe there may be the ability to apply a weight restriction on roads or to curtail the movement of large heavy goods vehicles. That might be something he wishes to raise with the appropriate authority. I was describing the frustrating state of our roads and pavements. Most importantly, the country’s broken roads have become, sadly, a symbol of the national decline presided over by the previous Government. Our roads have compounded the feeling that nothing works in this country. They tell a story of a country left in a woeful state of disrepair after 14 long years of the previous Government. Roads are the backbone of our transport system; they are the concrete arteries of our local and regional economies. Yet too often they fall way short of the standards we should expect in the 21st century. That is why this Government are taking decisive action to deliver the renewal of our roads.

Madam Deputy Speaker, you might not be aware that there is such a thing as the RAC pothole index. It shows that something like four out of 10 incidents of damage to cars happen as a result of potholes. The owners of vehicles are paying road tax and fuel duty, but they do not have the road infrastructure to support them. I welcome the Government’s support for filling potholes, but can we ensure that the motorist is looked after under this Government?

I can give my hon. Friend that assurance. That is why we have ploughed a record £1.6 billion into roads maintenance, including a £500 million uplift on last year. That is on top of the £200 million or so we are putting in the hands of local leaders in the big city regions, empowering mayoral combined authorities to mend the roads in their communities.

I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way. I want to raise a question that I am often asked. We have spoken about quick fixes. The problem is that we fix a few potholes, but the disrepair reappears. Does she agree that we should focus on resurfacing our roads?

My hon. Friend is completely right. In some cases, preventive comprehensive road resurfacing will be the appropriate action to take. In total, we are investing around £1.8 billion in fixing our local roads this year.

I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way and for the record investment of this Labour Government in fixing potholes. I particularly welcome the £21 million for East Sussex to fix our roads. Does she share my frustration at the fact that Conservative-run East Sussex county council has told me that it will have a lower highways budget this year than last year, even with that record injection from the Labour Government? We need to track how it is spending that money. I welcome the Government’s commitment to making councils publish reports on how the extra pothole money is spent. I hope it will include a geographical breakdown, so I can make sure that Hastings, Rye and the villages are getting their fair share.

We are asking local authorities to publish a report on their websites by June this year. We are tipping more money into highways maintenance and it is absolutely right that people should see visible results on their roads. And it is right that my hon. Friend is holding her local Conservative council to account. Our investment in highways maintenance is not a sticking-plaster solution; it is a vital investment that could see councils fixing an extra 7 million potholes next year. That is just the beginning. As I said, for the first time we have asked councils to prove that they are using their funding wisely. By June, they will be asked—as I have just said—to report on how many potholes they have filled and provide an update on the condition of their roads. If we are not satisfied that they are delivering value for money, councils risk losing up to a quarter of their funding uplift.

Surrey has 70,000 potholes—5% of all the nation’s potholes and the most in the country—so I welcome the extra money for potholes, but given the recklessness of the Conservatives in Surrey, how will that help my constituents?

The wider transparency and accountability measures we have announced, whereby we are withholding a quarter of the funding uplift until such time as the local authority has demonstrated how it is using that money, will hopefully be of assistance to both the hon. Lady and her constituents. It is only right that taxpayers can see how their money is being spent. This new era of accountability and transparency will see their cash being put to good use, and road users will see the results.

Will the Secretary of State give way?

I will just make a little bit of progress. I will give way to the hon. Gentleman later. The Government will end decades of decay on our roads. We will lift the lid on how taxpayers’ money gets spent. We think that is a crucial part of the solution. I am pleased that this move has been positively received, with the RAC, National Highways, Logistics UK and so many more coming out in support. In fact, Edmund King, president of the AA, described it as “a…concerted attack on the plague of potholes”. Madam Deputy Speaker, I could not have put it better myself. It is great to see councils broadly welcoming our approach, too. As Councillor Adam Hug, transport spokesperson for the Local Government Association, put it: “it’s in everyone’s interests to ensure that public money is well spent.”

From one Adam to another. When I was a child, my late grandmother used to say that you could always tell a drunk person in Harare, because they drove in a straight line. One of my constituents said to me recently that, “In the United Kingdom, we are meant to drive on the left-hand side of the road, but in Newcastle-under-Lyme many people drive on what’s left of the road.” [Laughter.] They are very wise people in north Staffordshire, Madam Deputy Speaker. The Secretary of State is making an excellent speech. What would her two messages be, first to the good people of Newcastle-under-Lyme as we approach Thursday 1 May, and secondly, to the current Conservative leadership of Staffordshire county council?

First, I congratulate my hon. Friend’s constituents on an excellent sense of humour and perceptiveness in describing the state of the roads in their community. I would say simply to his local authority that it has no excuse. It has the money—get on and fix it. As much as we want to see councils go full steam ahead on road repairs, I also know that roadworks can be disruptive. We have all felt the frustration of being stuck at temporary traffic lights or by the sound of a pneumatic drill on a Sunday morning. That is why we are clamping down on companies that fail to comply with the rules by doubling a range of fixed-penalty notices, with the worst offences now facing £1,000 fines. Plus, we are extending charges for street works that run into the weekend. This is not about patching up the problem, either. We want to see repairs that are made to last, so we do not see the same bits of road being dug up over and over again. That means getting it right first time around, championing the best materials and techniques, ensuring contractors are properly managed, and embracing the innovation and new technology that will help us to get the job done while getting proper bang for our buck.

It would be churlish of anybody in this Chamber not to welcome all the money the right hon. Lady says she will spend on roads. It is welcome. I understand there is new technology for a better and more modern way of fixing potholes. I understand it does the job better and is cheaper. If that is the case, I met a manager in my constituency last Friday who told me he would be very interested in that scheme but he does not know about it. Will the Secretary of State share this new way of fixing potholes? If so, everybody in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland could benefit from it.

We are running a number of Live Labs projects to look at how we can best make use of AI and new technology to ensure we get good value for money in delivering roads maintenance. Over the next year, we will be working with the UK Roads Leadership Group to update the code of practice on well-maintained highways. I would be happy to speak to the hon. Gentleman further about what has been learnt. The important work that we are doing will help to set clear expectations for local authorities up and down the country, meaning cleaner, greener and better roads delivered with the needs of local people in mind.

Laurence, Eileen and the residents of St Quivox have been campaigning for 10 years to cut the speed on the B743 in my constituency. At this weekend’s public meeting, 45 people were delighted to hear that Sergeant Slaven of Police Scotland and South Ayrshire council’s director Kevin Braidwood support their campaign to cut the speed on this dangerous road, which has seen almost 30 accidents in the past decade. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Ayrshire Roads Alliance and South Ayrshire council need to urgently reduce the speed limit on this road and work with residents to introduce other traffic calming measures?

Decisions on the appropriate speed limits on their roads are decisions for local highways authorities. I will not pretend to know the detail of what my hon. Friend is talking about, but I will say that safety is an absolute priority for this Government, and that any local highway authority should be taking appropriate decisions to limit the number of people being injured on our roads and, ideally, to eradicate death and serious injury. This Government’s ambition for road users stretches far beyond local roads. Just last week, we announced £4.8 billion for National Highways to deliver critical road schemes alongside maintaining motorways and major A roads. With this bold investment, which is higher than the average annual funding from the last multi-year settlement, we can get on with vital schemes in construction, such as the A57 Greater Manchester link road, the A428 Black Cat scheme in Cambridgeshire, the A47 Thickthorn scheme near Norwich, unlocking 3,000 new homes—

Hear, hear.

I hear appreciation from the hon. Gentleman on the Opposition Front Bench. Those works will also include the M3 junction 9 scheme in Hampshire, which will support 2,000 more homes. By raising living standards, creating high-quality jobs and kick-starting economic growth, these projects will drive this Government’s plan for change. We are committed to delivering the road infrastructure that this country needs today, tomorrow and far into the future, and we are already working on the next multi-year road investment strategy to do just that. This is part of our mission to secure the future of Britain’s infrastructure. We are building better roads, creating safer streets and unlocking more efficient transport systems to help businesses to thrive and make life easier for all.

When the right hon. Lady leaves South Swindon and goes into Wiltshire, she will be pleased to note that the £20.7 million the Government have given to Wiltshire has been added to with £22 million put aside by Wiltshire council to maximise the impact. Could she say something about the connectivity between Bristol and Southampton? I was grateful for the meeting with her colleague, the Minister for Future of Roads, but does the Secretary of State recognise that now the A303 scheme is not happening, we need greater investment on north-south connectivity in Wiltshire?

I am aware that the right hon. Gentleman met with my hon. Friend, the Minister for Future of Roads, and I understand that as a follow-up to that meeting, National Highways is looking into the very issue that he describes.

On the point of road safety, after the previous Conservative Government singularly failed to dual the A1 in my constituency, attention must now turn to the safety of that road. Will the Secretary of State and the Roads Minister join me in my constituency to hear the conversations I have been having with National Highways about how we can improve the A1?

I know that the Minister for Future of Roads would be very happy to visit my hon. Friend in his constituency. While we cannot reopen the decision on dualling the A1, we are happy to look at whether smaller-scale schemes could address specific issues around safety and congestion on that very important road. The public are tired of seeing roads left to deteriorate with no accountability for how maintenance money is spent. This Government are laying the foundations for change, and this is just the beginning. There is so much more to do as we restore our transport system so that people across the country can fulfil their potential in a Britain where everyday journeys are smoother and safer, families are not shelling out for expensive and unexpected repairs, and hard-working people have more money in their pockets—a Britain not defined by disrepair and disarray, but where improved infrastructure becomes a symbol of our national renewal. Improving connectivity will unlock jobs, growth and opportunities across the country. By fixing our roads, building better infrastructure and ensuring that transport works for all, this Government are securing Britain’s future.

18:55:00

It is a pleasure to follow the Secretary of State. Each year, the Liberal Democrats and their friends travel about 800 billion km, while those of us on the Conservative Benches travel about 500 billion miles, and 90% of that is by road. Roads are the backbone of our transport network; they deliver goods, services and, importantly, people. They deliver economic growth and human flourishing—workers to their jobs, students to their schools, patients to their hospitals—and bring families together. It is absolutely right, therefore, that good roads deliver a stronger economy and a stronger society—I think we can all unite around that. The roads network is divided between the national infrastructure and local roads. Since local roads make up 97.3% of the network as a whole—nearly 204,000 miles—I think it is best that I start there, because local roads are at the heart of the problem of potholes. Legal responsibility for maintenance of those roads lies with the local authorities, but it is too easy for us to blame local authorities and move on, because their funding comes from central Government. The previous Government felt a degree of frustration, which I know is now shared by this Government, that while some local authorities are better than others at clearing up potholes, it is the Government—of whatever colour—who tend to get the blame. The Prime Minister has taken a view on this issue—he seems to be frustrated as well. Last month, we had the announcement that local authorities are required to publish reports on how many potholes they have repaired. That is not a novel undertaking; they were, as I recall, required to do exactly that back in 2013 or 2014. The risk now is that if they have not repaired a sufficient number of potholes, local authorities risk losing 25% of their increased grant.

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that adopting a policy of managed decline, as the Conservatives did in Oxfordshire in 2014, is a disaster, and is really not the appropriate way to fix the problems we have in front of us?

I would absolutely agree that managed decline is not the right way to fix these problems, but I refute the accusation that the Conservative Government managed decline—[Interruption.] Well, let us look at the data. The hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington (Matt Western) made reference to the RAC pothole index, which is a very useful piece of information that tracks how much more likely a driver is to suffer a breakdown as a result of a pothole. This data goes back to 2006, when Labour was in power. You may not be wholly surprised, Madam Deputy Speaker, to learn that under the previous Labour Government, a driver was more than twice as likely to suffer a breakdown as a result of a pothole than under the subsequent Conservative Government, corrected for seasonal weather effects and improving longer-term vehicle reliability. Those on the Government Benches say that the Conservative Government managed decline, but, in fact, exactly the opposite is true. Breakdowns caused by potholes peaked under Labour in 2009, and have more than halved as a result of the investment of the coalition and Conservative Governments.

Birmingham city council, which is the largest council in Europe, covers some of the vast number of roads and arterial routes coming in and out of the city with Spaghetti junction. Labour has controlled the council for around a decade, and roads are simply going from bad to worse. Part of the problem is the desensitisation of the residents, who feel there is just no point complaining about a pothole—officers come out but do not repair them. What mechanisms need to be put in place so that we can address the potholes that exist and are getting worse?

The best mechanism would be to vote for a Conservative local authority on 1 May. If we look at the data rather than the slogans, 68 miles of roads on average are repaired each year under Conservative councils, while just 14 miles are repaired under Labour councils. I say it again: if people want potholes fixed, they should vote Conservative on 1 May.

I am grateful to the shadow Minister for giving way. I get on with him relatively well—[Interruption.] Very well, I should say, though we will get on even better if he agrees with my point. He has just said that people should vote Conservative because of the successes to which he has just referred. What would he say to my constituents in Newcastle-under-Lyme who have a Tory borough council and county council—and have done for several years—who describe our roads as “deeply sunken” and “physically uncomfortable to drive over”, and say that they have “crumbling surfaces”, “failed resurfacing work” and “repairs that don’t last” and “worsening conditions despite recent repairs”. Several constituents have noted that “only a few potholes” were ever patched and “hazardous conditions from multiple directions”—

Order. Interventions are getting far too long. There is a very long list of speakers wishing to contribute to this evening’s debate, so interventions should be short and pithy.

I had hoped the hon. Gentleman and I got on better than that, but I am grateful for the question. Everyone in this Chamber can point at potholes and say that more needs to be done, and we would all be correct. We have far too many potholes, and we need to build, repair and improve our network over time. I accept that it will not just be by voting Conservative that we reduce potholes overall. There is a question of prioritisation of funding, and that applies under both Labour and the Conservatives. How funding is provided is also important. The overall amount of funding for the repair of potholes is obviously crucial, but how it is provided in the long term is essential for local authorities to schedule their repairs. Long-term funding would increase their efficiency. it would not be the stop-start feast or famine that we hear so much about at the moment. Local authorities could also increase the number of potholes being repaired for the amount of money spent. It was for exactly this reason that the last Conservative Government committed to a 10-year £8.3 billion investment for the repair of potholes. That long-term approach made an enormous difference. The RAC welcomed the news and said that the plans would “give councils certainty of funding”, allowing them to “plan proper long-term maintenance”. The Asphalt Industry Alliance—I am sure you read about them often, Madam Deputy Speaker—said that there is a consensus among local authorities that “guaranteed long-term funding helps increase efficiency and provide a more resilient road network”. It said that “security of funding helps authorities to plan with more confidence and drive greater cost and environmental efficiencies through the promotion of proactive asset management techniques.” The point is that long-term, predictable funding increases the number of repairs undertaken and reduces the cost we have to pay for it.

The hon. Member has mentioned a couple of figures, including one from 2006, when I was nine. To quote a more recent figure from the annual local authority road maintenance 2025 report, when the Conservatives left office they left us with a backlog of £16.8 billion-worth of pothole repairs. What does he say to the people who are still driving over those potholes?

The hon. Member may have misunderstood me; the figure I was referring to was from 2009-10—the very last year of the Labour Government. Since then, although there have been variations because of winter and summer, the number of potholes leading to breakdowns has more than halved, according to the RAC, which is of course independent. I know there are lots of examples of people driving into potholes, including me and everyone here who drives, but the overall data demonstrates beyond doubt that people are better off under the Conservatives than Labour if they want to avoid potholes that cause breakdowns. Long-term predictable funding leads to an increased number of repairs at a reduced cost, but Labour has cancelled that long-term approach, so predictability of funding for local authorities has gone. The efficiencies associated with that predictability of funding are gone, as are the cost savings. Instead, we have had an announcement of £1.6 billion until 2026, which is very welcome; I have constructive opposition to this issue, so when more funding comes for the repair of potholes, I welcome it. However, if we look beneath the bonnet, we see that the Labour Government have at the same time increased costs to local authorities through their national insurance contributions hike of £1.1 billion. They give £1.6 billion with one hand, but they take away £1.1 billion with the other. It does not stop there. Their hike on vehicle excise duty over the course of this Parliament means another £1.7 billion being taken from motorists. They take £1.7 billion from motorists, and they give £400 million net back for road improvements. What happens after 2026? Do we know? Does the Secretary of State herself know what happens with the funding after that? The Government have been entirely silent, leading local authorities to be deeply concerned about their ability to plan long-term repairs, not just to potholes but to road infrastructure as a whole. It is an unfortunate example of this Government chasing headlines over responsible government. Let us move from local roads to the major road network. Labour’s first act on coming into Government was not to back our road infrastructure or improve repairs but to cancel five vital road improvement schemes. Those were the A5036 Princess Way, the A358 Taunton to Southfields, the M27 Southampton junction 8, which was obliquely referred to earlier, the A47 roundabout at Great Yarmouth—the other end of the Thickthorn roundabout, which the Secretary of State is continuing the previous Government’s improvement of—and the A1 Morpeth to Ellingham. Labour is not prioritising roads or road users, despite taking another £1.7 billion out of vehicle excise duty. It is dipping its hands yet further into the pockets of motorists while cancelling major road improvements. That contrasts with the Conservative record of 2015 to 2025, where we invested £40 billion into England’s strategic road network. Short-term headlines over long-term planning—that is Labour. What is to come with Labour’s road maintenance plans? I hope this debate will shed light on it and clarify the future of funding for road maintenance. Perhaps the Secretary of State can whisper into the ear of the Minister for the Future of Roads before she winds up so she can tell us what happens after 2026, because local authorities deserve better than to be marched up a hill with road repairs and then left in a hole.

I call Alex Mayer.

19:07:00

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. “It’s like driving over the surface of the moon,” is what Karen from Houghton Regis told me. Marion and Brian explained how they had had two tyres ruined, costing them over £200. A plumber from Dunstable sent me multiple photos of craters in his road. Councillor Matt Brennan showed me more when we visited Aldbanks in Dunstable, and a constituent in Leighton Buzzard told me that Mile Tree Road has become increasingly hazardous because of the number of potholes. After 14 years of Conservative rule and the increasing effects of climate change, too many of our roads are in a sorry state. Figures from the RAC show that drivers encounter, on average, six potholes per mile in England and Wales. That is bad news for not only car drivers but cyclists, bus users and coaches. I welcome the Government’s investment in improving our road conditions. This Labour Government have increased the funding to Central Bedfordshire council to nearly £9.7 million this year, which represents a 39.7% increase. That sounds like really good news, and one would think that more potholes would get filled in, so I was really concerned to see that the council budget showed only a 5% increase in highways spending. I appreciate that Central Bedfordshire council also contributes capital to the highways budget along with the Government, but I was hugely disappointed by a statement made at the council’s joint budget scrutiny taskforce committee: “When the Government announced that we would receive more funding, the decision was made to spend less of our own money rather than increase the programme.” I have warned that that attitude could jeopardise the full uplift of Government funding. I would be grateful for the Minister’s thoughts on that. In the light of that, I particularly welcome the Government’s plan, as we have heard, for councils to publish reports on their websites by the end of June detailing what they are doing to improve the state of local roads. I was especially pleased to hear that the reports will be short and in plain English—all reports should be, really. Particularly important is that the template means that councils must show how many holes they filled in during the previous five years. Residents expect, and indeed deserve, to see the number of potholes being filled in increasing. We are all watching this space. Councils will also be required to show how they are spending more on long-term preventive maintenance programmes, which is incredibly important. As I have said, we are living in a time of climate emergency, and the wetter winters and extremes of hot and cold are making potholes worse by increasing the number of freeze-and-thaw cycles. However, some emerging technologies may help. Apparently, artificial intelligence can identify cracks and spot potholes before they appear. There are also graphene-reinforced asphalt, which is self-healing, as well as bacteria-infused cement and systems to regulate road temperatures. Tech is clearly moving apace. Given all those innovations, is the Minister considering updating the Department’s guidance on preventing potholes during the winter? While we are on climate change, well-maintained and smoother roads reduce fuel consumption and cut emissions. Data show that smoother roads can reduce vehicle emissions by more than 5%. The opposite is true for bad roads: the Centre for Economics and Business Research found that poor road conditions have an impact on driver behaviour, as I think we know as we try to swerve around potholes. It has calculated that that changed driver behaviour from speeding up and slowing down means that CO₂ emissions are about 0.5 tonnes higher. It is also crucial to minimise the disruption caused by utility companies’ street works—I know that Ministers have repeatedly stated that—because we know that when a road is opened up with a trench, that can reduce its structural life by an average of 17%. I therefore draw all hon. Members’ attention to the street works inquiry currently being carried out by the Transport Committee, which I and other hon. Members in the Chamber are members of. Members can tune in to any of the evidence sessions, and the final report will be available very soon in all good Vote Offices. We are all familiar with instances where the same stretch of road or pavement seems to be repeatedly opened up by different companies over a short period, particularly in new developments. A constituent wrote to me about Bedford Road in Houghton Regis to say that, over roughly a month, five different companies had dug up the road, one after another. When I queried that with the council’s street works team, I was informed that “no collaboration opportunities were identified to reduce the number of road closures”. Residents think the situation is ridiculous. Let me turn to cost. In April 2024, the Centre for Economics and Business Research reported that poor road conditions were costing £14.4 billion a year in economic damage to England—or 60% of a Tory Government black hole, as I like to think of it. But there is hope, because the Department for Transport’s economic appraisal tells us that for every pound invested in local road maintenance, there is a minimum return of £2.20, and typical returns identified of up to £9.10 at a national level. Finally, let me turn to buses and coaches. Unlike car motorists, cyclists and pedestrians who can often take different routes when there is a particularly bad potholed road or a road is closed because of potholes, buses have an obligation to stick to their routes wherever possible. The Confederation of Passenger Transport highlights a 13% increase in bus operators’ costs per kilometre since 2019, with much of that attributed to delays, diversions and disruption, including those caused by the poor state of roads. First Bus told me that it spends more than £1 million each year repairing bus suspension components. That cost inevitably gets passed on to passengers through higher fares and reduced service levels. I welcome the Labour Government’s investment in road maintenance and sincerely hope that all local councils will rise to the challenge. For my constituent who thinks it is like driving on the moon, this really is not rocket science, but nor is it just a matter of inconvenience. Filling in these potholes is crucial for safety, for the environment and for economic growth.

19:15:00

I receive countless emails and letters from local people across the constituency about the shocking state of our roads. People are rightly frustrated about potholes, and about the little and long waits for repairs forced on them by Bradford council. This is perhaps one of the most important issues that all of us, as MPs, get correspondence about. Why? Because it impacts us each and every day, whether we are commuting to work or simply getting out and about in the car to go and do things. We all care about the state of our roads right outside our door. I want to take you through my constituency, Madam Deputy Speaker, referencing a few roads and highlighting the level of concern that constituents rightly raise with me. Take Elliott Street, which runs through the centre of in Silsden in my constituency. I was first contacted by residents on this major road years ago, and the situation was poor then. Over the last few years, it has only got worse, to the extent that people on social media described the state in which Labour-run Bradford council had left the road as a mere joke. Despite having consistently raised the matter with Bradford council, it took years for the council to finally get on with it. I am pleased that in just the last two weeks, the resurfacing works have now finished. The works are welcome—of course they are—but residents on Elliott Street and across the wider Silsden area should not have had to wait years for such a busy and important road to be repaired. Elliott Street is just one example. There are similar stories in Keighley, on Westburn Avenue, on Oakworth Road, on Halifax Road and on North Street—the list goes on. In Ilkley, we have a difficult junction at the top of the Cowpasture Road, north of Ilkley grammar school. Local Conservative councillors David Nunns and Andrew Loy have consistently lobbied Bradford Council to look at this dangerous junction. In the Worth valley, the sides of Hill House Edge Lane are crumbling, with cars getting stuck in the ditches as they pass one another. Again, local Conservative councillors Rebecca Poulson, Chris Herd and Russell Brown have consistently lobbied Labour-run Bradford council to sort the issue out, but no repairs have been undertaken.

I do not want to make this too political, but I think it should be noted—although I am not a Bradford Member—that £350 million of revenue funding has been cut from Bradford council since 2010. The council is doing an awful lot under difficult circumstances brought about by 14 years of the hon. Member’s Tory Government.

I am pleased that the hon. Member brought that up. Just in 2021, Bradford council, through its statutory responsibility to provide feedback to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government —it was the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities at the time—reported that it was in sound financial health. That was the year in which it applied to be city of culture. This year, residents across the Keighley and Ilkley constituency face a 10% increase in council tax, despite our roads being in such a poor state. That leads me on to a freedom of information request that I put to Bradford council. I was astounded by what I found out. I welcome the Secretary of State’s announcement today that there will be more transparency in our local councils, because through that FOI request I learned that between 2017 and 2022, just 4% of Bradford council’s identified spending for highways was allocated to my constituency of Keighley and Ilkley. For reference, Labour-run Bradford council was able to find and allocate £13.1 million for the Bradford South constituency, £19.2 million for the Bradford East constituency and £17.4 million for the Bradford West constituency, but only £4.1 million was spent across the Keighley and Ilkley constituency on highways over that six-year period. This is despite many concerns quite rightly being raised from residents across Keighley, Ilkley, the Worth valley, Silsden and Steeton. Wherever they may be in my constituency, they are rightly complaining about repairs to roads not being undertaken, pavement problems not being addressed and potholes not being looked at, so it is no wonder that my constituents are losing trust in our local Labour-run authority. The list goes on, and it includes concerns that are being raised by local Conservative councillors trying to hold Labour-run Bradford council to account, but unfortunately we seem not to be getting anywhere and we are not being listened to. When Bradford council does spend money on roads in my patch, the question is: does it actually spend that money on what people want it to be spent on? Of course it does not. When Bradford council spent more than £100,000—with an £87,500 contribution from Ilkley town council—on roads in Ilkley, we got speed humps and a blanket 20 mph zone, rather than getting our potholes addressed. In a parish council referendum on this very issue, 98.3% of people in Ilkley opposed the roll-out of way over 100 speed bumps in the centre of Ilkley. If you asked anyone in Ilkley what they would like from a good proportion of the 200 grand being spent on our roads, they would say, quite rightly: “Fix the potholes and sort out that junction at the top of Cowpasture Road.” But Bradford council would not listen. It went against a public referendum on this issue and instead spent the money on more speed humps, contrary to what the people in Ilkley rightly advocated through a vote on the issue at the ballot box. So, what are the Government going to do to ensure that my constituents get a fair deal on their roads from Bradford council? The Secretary of State promising greater investment into roads is absolutely vital and to be welcomed, but it is no good making these promises when the funds do not get past the dictatorial local council, which does not allocate the money to my constituency. In Keighley and Ilkley we deserve our fair share, but Bradford council is unfortunately more than happy to allocate our council tax and any central Government funds that come into the Bradford district not to the roads in Keighley and Ilkley, Silsden or the Worth valley, but instead to Bradford city itself. It is about time we had our fair share of highway spending across our constituency of Keighley and Ilkley.

19:23:00

As many Members of this House will recognise, road maintenance is something that deeply resonates with all our constituents; it is a basic need. People across my constituency leave their homes every day in cars that they pay tax on, to drive on roads whose upkeep they pay tax for but that are just not up to standard. In Burnley, Padiham and Brierfield, we have had 14 years of underfunding and a Tory county council that my residents tell me could not care less about roads in our area because it is not an area that typically votes for them. This is just not good enough. When I was out and about on the doorsteps during the election, this issue came up over and over again. Potholes and crumbling roads became totemic; they became a metaphor for crumbling council services. Cash for our area was stripped back year after year, not just for roads but for development and growth, while the council announced game show-style cheques and told us we were being levelled up. It felt like a PR exercise, and it was a PR exercise. From Burnley to Padiham and down the streets of Brierfield, the people I represent shared their frustration with me, and I share that frustration too. For too long, our local roads have been left to deteriorate while the previous Government failed to take action. It was a failure not just of investment, but of attention—attention to the everyday concerns of people simply trying to get to work, to take their kids to school or to visit loved ones. When roads crumble, it is not just a nuisance; it becomes a safety hazard. It damages vehicles and it erodes public confidence in the Government to do the bare minimum. Constituents ask me how something so basic, so essential to daily life, can be left to crumble in this way. As the Secretary of State said, we cannot claim to be serious about economic growth and opportunities if we cannot even assure people that they will not have to drive on surfaces that are similar to the dirt roads of the Aussie outback. But I stand here today encouraged because I am proud to support a Government that are now doing things differently, making meaningful and measurable investment, getting things done and delivering. The Minister has made a clear commitment to reversing the decline in local road conditions and we are about to see the results, with £1.6 billion for roads this year, which is enough to fill 21 million potholes. Lancashire is receiving a total funding package of £46.825 million for the 2025-26 financial year. That is a 40% uplift on what was allocated in the previous financial year, and it takes the full road repair fund to £65 million. This investment is not just a number on a spreadsheet, although they are certainly welcome; it is real, meaningful progress. It sends a message that we are prioritising roads so that many of our constituents can use them every day. This is a historic funding package for our roads, but I am disappointed that Tory-run Lancashire county council has seen fit to resurface only three roads in the whole of Burnley and Padiham this year, as declared so far: Queen Victoria Road, Brunshaw Avenue and Bank Parade. That is all very welcome, but for the amount of money we are putting in, we need to see more. The resurfacing of roads in Burnley, Padiham and Brierfield is about more than asphalt. It is about improving road safety, reducing vehicle repair costs and boosting accessibility for everyone. It is about making our towns easier, safer and more pleasant to live and move around in. While we are making progress, it would be remiss of me, as a member of the Public Accounts Committee, not to mention the Committee’s recent report: “Condition and maintenance of Local Roads in England”. We in the Committee found that the Department for Transport’s data in this area was not sufficient, and that accountability in road maintenance was still far too fragmented. We cannot afford to play pass the parcel between local and national authorities when our roads are falling apart beneath our feet. The Committee said that the DFT should take greater ownership by improving data collection, by clearly defining responsibilities and by ensuring that local councils have the resources and the oversight to deliver quality, timely maintenance and move away from short-term fixes to longer financial planning of our roads. A long time ago I was an executive member for finance at a metropolitan borough authority. Too often, over the years I was in that role, we were picking the bones of our reserves and capital plans to find one-off pots and short fixes to fund that year’s road programme. That cannot be reasonable in 21st-century Britain. I am quite pleased, therefore, to see the Prime Minister’s recent announcement that councils will have to publish data on how many road repairs they have completed and the money that they have been granted. I remain optimistic for our roads and council services because, despite global economic uncertainty and the tightening of public finances across many countries, this Government have made a conscious decision to invest in services that matter, to increase day-to-day spending for my council across the term of the Parliament and to get more done for my residents. In Burnley, Padiham and Brierfield, we are beginning to see the results of the decisions made around the Budget. Cash—real cash—is going into our roads. The deal is this: you pay your tax, and you get decent services. But for many hard working people, that just has not been the case. The basics were cut while we had to be grateful for the crumbs of levelling up. We were left with an empty tank and a busted engine, but given a new radio to improve the experience. We were on the road to nowhere. That is not the end of my car-related language. While I welcome this money—new money—I will continue to work closely with Lancashire county council and the Department for Transport to make sure that this wheelie good funding for my area does not stall, and is not parked for a later date, and that we get into gear, buckle in, hit the gas and deliver on this at speed. Madam Deputy Speaker, I think I have driven the point home.

I call the Lib Dem spokesperson.

19:29:00

I thank the Government for holding this debate, and I assure the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew), that us Lib Dems are wonderfully bilingual and can travel in both kilometres and miles. As a Liberal Democrat, this issue is of course close to my heart. Pothole photos are a staple of Lib Dem literature across the country. Although other parties may dismiss our focus on pothole politics, we understand that for millions, the state of our roads is no laughing matter. So I welcome this debate; it is vital that we bring renewed focus to an issue that was desperately neglected by the Conservatives for years. This is not just a matter for drivers. Whether someone commutes by car, relies on public transport or cycles, their journey begins on local roads. The condition of those roads directly impacts the daily lives of countless individuals, and the truth is that we are facing a crisis. Despite the previous Government’s rhetoric about standing up for motorists, their actions fell woefully short. The road condition index reveals that almost 25,000 miles—one in 10 miles of the road network in England and Wales—require urgent maintenance within the next year, while less than half our roads are reported to be in good structural condition. These are not abstract figures; they represent tangible burdens on everyday lives. Data from the RAC shows that for anything more than a tyre puncture, drivers can expect to pay almost £500 for a pothole-related car repair. The number of pothole-related breakdowns attended by RAC patrols rose by nearly a fifth in the last three months of 2024, compared with the previous quarter. While the debate about roads often centres on potholes, as the most visible symptom of neglect, the real issue is the underlying condition of our road network. Instead of talking about fixing potholes here and there, we must shift our focus to prevention, and not merely focus on reactive repairs. Although the Government’s recent injection of funds is a welcome acknowledgment of the problem, it fails to address the fact that our current road maintenance funding mechanism is simply not fit for purpose, and the backlog of repairs is simply too long to be fixed by short-term injections of cash. If the Government are serious about tackling this crisis, they must urgently reform the system and give councils the support they need to get on top of the crisis. Local councils are responsible for managing 98% of our national road network and bear the brunt of the challenge. However, they are underfunded and face huge financial pressures. Analysis from the Local Government Association has confirmed that due to continuing inflation and wage pressures, English councils face a £6.2 billion shortfall in funding across the next two years. Given the challenges that councils face, from ballooning social care costs to the special educational needs and disabilities crisis, highway maintenance is often seen as something that can be postponed until finances improve, as we heard from the hon. Member for Burnley (Oliver Ryan). Roads require resurfacing roughly every 15 years. However, years of chronic underfunding have forced councils to defer that crucial maintenance, leading to the current pothole plague. That has led to a situation where the average frequency of resurfacing for all classes of road is now an appalling 93 years. When I recently spoke to a council’s highway lead, he put it aptly: “Roads are like trousers. You can fix a hole here and there with a patch, but it reaches a point where this just simply won’t work. Roads in this country are at such a point where we don’t just need new trousers—we need a whole new wardrobe.” Although local councils are responsible for most of their roads, much of the funding for road maintenance comes from central Government. However, the Department for Transport has acknowledged that the current funding model is inefficient and does not deliver good value for money. The annual funding cycle forces councils into reactive, short-term fixes, hindering long-term planning. A longer-term funding settlement would allow councils to plan ahead and move away from that reactive model. Furthermore, the current funding formula, based solely on each local authority’s total road mileage, is woefully inadequate. It fails to account for the diverse needs and road usage in different regions, which demands a more nuanced approach. For example, Department for Transport data indicates that Merton, in which most of my constituency lies, has the second worst uncategorised and B and C roads in the country. Merton, however, received less funding than other areas with more, but better roads. In a recent meeting with the Secretary of State, it was suggested by officials that Merton’s poor standing may be due to a data error in the figures submitted by the council. Regardless of the cause, that paints a troubling picture. Either Merton is failing to maintain our roads, or it is failing to accurately report their condition, neither of which is acceptable. Will the Minister write to me to clarify the situation? The current formula also neglects active travel infrastructure. Although the Government have increased active travel funding, there is no provision for the maintenance of new cycle lanes. Similarly, on the doorstep in Wimbledon, I regularly hear complaints about the quality of pavements, which particularly affects those with mobility issues. If we are serious about promoting cycling and walking, we must ensure that cycle paths and pavements are properly maintained. Without dedicated funding, however, they will deteriorate, discouraging their use and the willingness of councils to provide more such infrastructure.

Does my hon. Friend agree with me and the Eastbourne seniors forum that the state of the pavement outside the Halifax—which is like the moon, causing lots of trips and falls—is a disgrace, and that East Sussex county council needs to get on top of that straightaway to give people confidence in using roads and pavements again?

How could I disagree with the Eastbourne seniors forum? Indeed, Eastbourne, Wimbledon and many other constituencies have the same problem with pavements; they are in a shocking condition. Despite lofty talk about fixing the issues, the Government have cut the highways maintenance budget by 5% for the forthcoming year. The Government claim that that is a temporary measure, as it is a one-year funding settlement to cover National Highways until its next five-year funding period commences in 2026. Can the Minister please confirm today that the Government will make up for the shortfall in the funding settlement next year? Our motorways are key to keeping our country and economy moving. We cannot afford to cut costs on such a critical aspect of our infrastructure. The Conservatives have led us down the fast lane to decay. There is no doubt that our roads are crumbling, and motorists, cyclists and bus passengers are paying the price. It is now up to the new Government to face up to the challenge. With more short-term injections of cash and a cut to the National Highways budget, their current approach is akin to pulling into a service station for a brief respite. It may delay the journey for a bit, but we remain en route to continuing deterioration. If Labour are serious about fixing our roads, they must sort out the backlog in work that is needed to allow them to be proactively, not just reactively, managed. That requires the Government to relieve the pressure on local councils by sorting out social care and the SEND crisis, as well as implementing a long-term, needs-based funding model for road maintenance. Without meaningful action to support local councils properly, we will continue on our journey of managed decline.

19:38:00

I thank the Secretary of State for introducing this important debate. Improving our roads and highways is a critical mission for this Labour Government and will help to deliver real economic growth for my constituency. In Stoke-on-Trent South, our roads experienced years of decay under the previous Government and are riddled with potholes. With crater-like potholes damaging cars and congestion delaying commutes to work, that costs my constituents. But this debate is about more than just bumps and burst tyres, as important as they are; improving our local road network will greatly boost investment in our city, rural areas and neighbouring regions. That is why I warmly welcome the uplift in highways funding, of which more than £9 million has been allocated to Stoke-on-Trent and £19 million to Staffordshire to fix our potholes. Labour-run Stoke-on-Trent city council has done excellent work on this issue already, working with midlands manufacturer, JCB, to develop and use the Pothole Pro—a cutting-edge solution to fixing potholes, which can complete 18 years of traditional work in just over two years. Using the Pothole Pro, the highways direct services team in the city council has delivered real improvements to the city’s roads. In the last few years, it has repaired 16,255 potholes, which is a 772% improvement. The city council has also been using AI to map out the condition of the entire highway network—potholes, cracks and depressions—with a complete inventory of the street signs. The council hopes to deploy the technology further on to our bin wagons, which of course go everywhere, which highlights the innovative work being done locally to improve our road network. Our road network is strategically critical to the city’s—and north Staffordshire’s—prosperity and economic development. The A50 and A500 roads are a key connector between Crewe, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stoke-on-Trent, Uttoxeter and Derby. Along this corridor are advanced manufacturing companies like JCB, Michelin, Toyota and Bentley, and of course within Stoke-on-Trent we have excellent ceramics companies like Duchess China and Wedgwood. Stoke-on-Trent is also a specialist in advanced ceramics—precisely the kinds of businesses that are looking for investment from this Labour Government and precisely the kind of advanced manufacturing companies that can offer real wages and skilled employment to workers in our city and north Staffordshire, and that need good road transport. Unfortunately, my constituents and companies face significant challenges in getting to their workplaces and for freight transport, particularly on the A50, where pinch-point roundabouts are causing huge delays. A report by Midlands Connect found that commuters are delayed by 37 minutes per day on average due to delays at those roundabouts. In August, I had a crash on one of them, and it hurt. These delays really reduce the distance that my constituents can travel for work. Midlands Connect has estimated that improving these roads, along with building more houses and investing in our advanced manufacturing corridor, will generate over £12 billion in gross value added. Our roads are really important, but as passionate as I am about road improvements, I am even more passionate about road safety. Improvements go beyond economic growth and filling potholes; they make a real difference to road safety for pedestrians in communities across Stoke-on-Trent South, particularly within the rural areas of my constituency, which are under the purview of Conservative-run Staffordshire county council. Our communities deserve roads where people feel safe, not roads dominated by speeding traffic. High-speed roads cut straight through villages like Tittensor and Draycott in the Moors, making it incredibly unsafe for children and elderly residents to cross the road to catch buses, walk to school or go to doctors’ surgeries. Implementing traffic-calming measures and pedestrian crossings and introducing lower speed limits are essential steps in making these villages safer and accessible for everyone. I thank Josie Windsor, who has organised a petition in Tittensor to get a pedestrian crossing across the A34, to ensure that the elderly, children and working people can access shops and public transport. I particularly thank Bassetts for its recent letter of support. I also thank residents of Draycott in the Moors—another village cut in two, this time by the Uttoxeter Road, which is often used as a rat run when the A50 is congested. There are no pedestrian crossings along the road. As in Tittensor, that means that people risk their lives crossing the road to reach the other side of the village. It is hugely worrying. There are even proposals for a huge housing development, which will add to the problem. Residents desperately want a roundabout and pedestrian crossings to ease congestion and improve safety, but their pleas are falling on deaf ears at the county council. There have been successes. In Weston Coyney, my constituent Craig Royce has campaigned successfully to get a pedestrian crossing—a huge win for the local community in Stoke-on-Trent—after his friend tragically lost his life due to a dangerous driver and the lack of a crossing. I am delighted to have helped Craig in his campaign by helping him to liaise with relevant professionals at the city council. On Hilderstone level, along the B5066, I thank Penny Meakin for leading the Hilderstone Road speed campaign for speed controls on Hilderstone Road, and I thank campaigners in Beech, who also want slower traffic. These communities in my constituency are being failed by our current road maintenance system, which has low consideration for road safety, moves too slowly and does not value the impact on communities, whether in local villages or wider regions, who know their areas better than we do in Westminster and, indeed, better than Staffordshire county council. My right hon. and learned Friend the Prime Minister has said: “There’s no monopoly on good ideas”, so let us work with our communities and our fantastic parish councils to deliver the changes that our roads desperately need, and build connected and safe communities.

19:44:00

Roads are crucial to life in the Scottish Borders. They are a lifeline. My constituency stretches from Cockburnspath in the north all the way down to Newcastleton, just north of Carlisle. It takes the best part of two and a half hours to drive from one end of it to the other. Excluding trunk roads, in the Scottish Borders there are 1,857 miles of local roads that the council are responsible for. In addition, there are many more miles of trunk roads, which the Scottish Government’s Transport Scotland is responsible for. Looking around the Chamber, I ask whether any other Member present can challenge that figure of 1,857 miles of local roads that the council is responsible for; it is a uniquely high figure. Roads are essential for people in the Borders to get around, see friends, go to school, get to work and go to hospital appointments. It is crucial that we have good-quality roads to just exist, never mind enjoy any of the luxuries in life. It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that I receive so much casework from constituents expressing concern about the quality of some of the roads and the lack of investment, which I will come on to. Also, when I do surveys and knock on doors each week, doing my residents doorstep surgeries, consistently potholes will be the No. 1 issue that local residents raise with me. I do not think any other Member has yet paid tribute to the hard-working council employees who do a very good job of fixing the roads under very difficult circumstances. They might not have the resources or all the equipment that they need, but they are doing the best they can in very challenging circumstances to make the roads as good as they can be. They often go above and beyond what is their job to ensure that the roads, which are often in the communities that they live in themselves, are maintained to the best possible standard. Very often, what makes such employees’ life even more difficult is the fact that electricity, gas or broadband companies come into their communities and dig up the roads. The council employees might come and fix a road one week, then discover that a few days or weeks later, a utility company will come through and dig up the road again. Much more needs to be done, both by the UK Government and the Scottish Government, who are responsible for this policy area in Scotland, to ensure that these types of utility companies are under a much tougher obligation to restore roads to the standard that they were in prior to the work being carried out, or indeed bring them up to an even better standard. If they choose to do the work, they need to invest in the road so that it is brought up to a good standard once they have completed it. My council, Scottish Borders council, has invested in the JCB Pothole Pro equipment, which the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Dr Gardner) mentioned. Amid growing concerns about the state of the roads in the Borders, the council felt that it was a good investment. They bought one, and have now hired a second. This machine carried out 1,889 road repairs between April and the end of December last year, which resulted in a significant improvement in the local road network. There is still a huge backlog of road repairs, thanks largely to the lack of investment by the SNP Government; I will come to that shortly. Scottish Borders council has also set up a new interactive map on its website of the whole council area. People can identify roads and provide evidence of potholes that need to be fixed. As a consequence of that investment, a recent freedom of information request to all United Kingdom councils showed that Scottish Borders council has spent millions of pounds on fixing potholes across the Borders. In 2020-21, it invested £2.5 million; in 2021-22, it invested £3.2 million; and in 2022-23, it invested £3.8 million, totalling over £9.6 million over three years. I commend my Conservative-controlled council for making this level of investment. But on the other side of the equation, it has had to pay out more than £17 million in compensation to road users and car drivers because of damage caused by potholes. Although the council has achieved a lot, there is much work still to do. I pay tribute to my Conservative colleagues on Scottish Borders council for what they have done. Like many other councils in Scotland, Scottish Borders council is under severe financial pressure because the Scottish nationalist Government in Edinburgh are not investing in local councils, particularly rural councils like mine in the borders. The Scottish Government often ignore the needs of rural communities across Scotland and invest instead in the central belt. Indeed, the cuts that the Scottish Government have imposed on local authorities, including my own, were recently described as “brutal” and “savage” cuts on local authorities, resulting in many, if not all, councils across Scotland having to make very difficult choices between investment and supporting vital local services. Although a few Labour Members representing Scottish constituencies are present for this debate on road maintenance, it is telling that SNP colleagues representing rural constituencies like my own are not here to talk about the very challenging road networks in their constituencies. The fact they are not here to defend the Scottish Government’s decision to cut road investment—their Benches are empty—says a lot.

Does my hon. Friend agree that it is not just north of the border that these cuts are being made? South of the border, we have seen this new Labour Government cut the local service delivery grant by over £100 million. The grant is specifically allocated to assist rural councils in providing much-needed services, such as pothole maintenance, where the cost of delivery is much higher in rural areas. Does he agree that was the wrong decision for this Labour Government to make?

I do agree, and I will develop that point. My concern is that policymakers, whether here in Westminster or in Edinburgh, have an urban outlook to transport. They assume that people have access to buses and trains, but those of us living in rural communities do not, so roads and cars become much more important.

I have to point out that Edinburgh is Scotland’s lowest funded local authority, looking at the block grant allocation. In preparing for this debate, I checked what the Scottish Government have been saying about the pothole crisis in Scotland, and I found that they have said absolutely nothing. Has the hon. Gentleman been able to find anything from them on this issue?

The hon. Gentleman makes a valid point. Scottish Borders council would be very grateful to receive the level of funding that Edinburgh council receives. Notwithstanding that, it is a problem that the Scottish Government do not invest in roads in the way we would expect. The hon. Member will be fully aware of the scandal surrounding the A9, which does not affect my constituency or, indeed, his, but the delays and the broken promises that the SNP has made to upgrade that vital road linking the north of Scotland with the rest of Scotland—and the rest of the UK, for that matter—have caused huge frustrations to the rural communities it serves. My criticism is not only directed at the SNP Government. As Labour Members will realise, the Labour Government are not immune from criticism either. The previous Conservative Government promised to invest in upgrading the A1 between Morpeth and Ellingham, and this Government’s decision to cancel that upgrade has caused great upset not just in my constituency but in Northumberland. The A1 is a vital road for the local economy in the Scottish Borders, and it is also a vital road in Northumberland. It is unfortunate that the hon. Member for North Northumberland (David Smith) is no longer in his place, but that road supports local jobs and the local economy. Savagely cutting that funding and scrapping the investment to improve that road will undoubtedly cause economic hardship for the communities that rely on that road.

Does my hon. Friend agree that this causes inconvenience not only to the many commuters who use the A1, who want better connectivity north of the border, but to the landowners who have been moved around in the negotiations for years? This Labour Government’s decision to scrap the funding allocated for the A1 upgrade not only affects local businesses in Alnwick and the safety of the crossings in Felton and Ellingham, and the like, but affects people who own land either side of the A1 who have been put through huge uncertainty.

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point, and the local press in Northumberland is full of stories of people who are effectively trapped.

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I will come to the hon. Gentleman—patience. The local press is full of stories of people who are trapped as a consequence of this Labour Government’s choice not to invest in the A1. I will now happily give way to the hon. Member for Hexham (Joe Morris), who will perhaps explain why he supports the cancelling of the A1 upgrade.

I remind the hon. Members for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) and for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore) that Northumberland now has four Labour MPs as a result of the neglect and contempt in which the county was held by the last Conservative Government. I also remind them that the Government in which they served were very much responsible for misleading the people of Northumberland by promising the A1 dualling without providing any money for it. Is that contempt not at the heart of why they lost Northumberland in such spectacular fashion?

The hon. Member for North Northumberland is no longer in his place, but he made an intervention earlier. He was very clear in his election leaflets that he was absolutely committed to upgrading and dualling the A1—a promise that has now been ripped up. I suspect the people of Northumberland will remember that when the next election day comes. That A1 is crucial to North Northumberland and to my constituents. Its road safety is terrible. Forget the economic arguments; the safety arguments make it all the more important. [Interruption.] Labour Members can shake their heads all they want, but it is a choice that this Labour Government made, that Labour Members made, having told the electorate the complete opposite before the election. My concern is that this Government and the SNP Government in Edinburgh sadly assume that everybody lives in a big city or a big town. They assume that people have access to buses or trains. For those of us living in Coldstream in my constituency, it is 14 miles to the nearest station, and the regular bus—the busy bus—comes every two or three hours. Unless we have access to a car and a good-quality road network, we are stuck. It is regrettable that this Government are not prioritising the A1, which supports my constituency to a certain extent. More importantly from my perspective, it is regrettable that the SNP Scottish Government are not investing in the roads of the Scottish Borders in the way they should—and I remind the House that SNP Members are not in the Chamber today to stand up for their communities who want investment in their roads.

19:58:00

Staffordshire has the worst roads in the country. I do not have definitive proof of that, but it is something that my constituents in Cannock Chase tell me every time I am out knocking on doors—and I agree with them. As we have heard many times already this evening, the British people are sick and tired of broken roads, which are costing them thousands of pounds when they hit potholes and making their everyday journeys far more dangerous. Fixing the basic infrastructure on which this country relies is central to national renewal and to improving living standards. I commend the Government for their work to ensure that 14 years of pothole-covered roads are coming to an end. The local authority is set to share in the Government’s record £1.6 billion of highway maintenance funding, which is enough to fill 7 million potholes a year. However, my constituents continue to share their concerns with me about dozens and dozens of cratered roads, such as Betty’s Lane and Red Lion Lane in my home village of Norton Canes. Here, short-term fix after short-term fix rapidly fails, meaning that residents have to continue waiting for lasting solutions, ultimately leading to higher costs and greater disruption in the long run. I was a district councillor in my constituency for six years, and although highways were not part of my remit, I spent a huge chunk of my time on the issue, especially as successive Conservative county councillors were all too often missing in action when it came to my community. In addition to potholes, blocked drains have been a recurring problem, causing localised flooding and subsequently further damage to the roads and—you guessed it—more potholes. Staffordshire county council, which has been Conservative run for the last 16 years, has cut back its highways budget drastically, except of course in one year in the run-up to an election, and for most roads, routine drain clearage is done only once every three years. Even completely compacted drains that are not absorbing a single drop of rain are frequently ignored as the outsourced highways contractor, who I will come to in a minute, says that they are not a priority and will be cleared sometime in the next three years. In reality, that short-sighted approach often leads to localised flooding and further deterioration of the roads—again, a complete false economy. A common complaint from my constituents is about the highways contractor, Amey, the epitome of profit-driven, service-limiting outsourcing if ever I saw one. It frequently pitches up having travelled miles from its depot, only to sort out one pothole or drain at a time and leaving others nearby completely ignored, even though addressing multiple issues at once would be far more efficient. I am sure other hon. Members can relate to the frustration that my constituents feel, particularly given that in the face of that dire and costly service, the Conservatives at County Buildings in Stafford have not sought to scrap that contract. Indeed, they have repeatedly rewarded Amey with extensions. Other councils have switched to a more preventive approach and have had success, but in Staffordshire we are still on an endless cycle of patch jobs on those potholes deemed the most dangerous. It is a bit like patching up a leaking pipe while ignoring the rest of the plumbing, and we need a proper fix for the whole system. I commend the Government’s action to ensure that councils are accountable for road maintenance and improvement. I particularly welcome the news that from 30 June this year, councils such as Staffordshire county council will be required to publish detailed reports on how they are spending the £39 million that they are getting from the Government, how many potholes have been filled, and how they are minimising disruption, alongside gathering input on what works and what does not work—something that has not happened in my county for a very long time.

Will my hon. Friend give way?

I am happy to give way to my Staffordshire colleague.

It is telling that in today’s debate we have five or six Staffordshire MPs debating this matter, and I wonder whether my hon. Friend would agree that that speaks to how let down residents and staff have been for far too long, and what happens under a Conservative-led local council.

I thank my hon. Friend. I think it is no coincidence that in Staffordshire we went from having no Labour MPs before the election to having nine out of 12, and that so many of us are here today to speak up for our constituents about areas of frustration, and about the failings of our county council and our hope for change in the near future. Roads are critical national infrastructure, and this Government must and will undo the neglected state that the previous Government left them in. I welcome the record funding announced, but I say to my constituents that we must ensure that that record investment has the maximum benefit for our towns and villages. On 1 May we will go to the polls with a clear choice: carry on with a cosy relationship between the county council and an incompetent highways contractor with the Conservatives; deep cuts to budgets through an Elon Musk-style “efficiency” drive with Reform; or common-sense, good value highways services with Labour. I know the choice I will be making, and I hope my constituents will join me in electing dedicated Labour county councillors who will work with this Labour Government to get the potholes fixed.

Order. After the next speaker I will impose a five-minute time limit.

20:03:00

For residents in Stratford-on-Avon and across the country, road maintenance is one of the most visible signs of how well, or how poorly, their local area is being looked after. The Local Government Association recently pointed out that the funding allocated for road repairs is falling short of what is needed. In fact, councils are now spending twice as much on repairing local roads as they receive in Government funding. That shortfall is felt on every street in my constituency, where dangerous potholes keep reappearing, road surfaces crack again just a few months after being patched up, and pavements are on a waiting list for many years to be repaired, especially in our rural villages. In Stratford-on-Avon, we are also seeing the consequences of poor long-term planning by Conservative-run Warwickshire county council, which is the local highway authority. Take the Birmingham Road in Stratford-upon-Avon, which is one of our major arteries in and out of town. Residents and businesses have faced seemingly endless roadworks which, incidentally, do not improve active travel and safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and other road users. The delays and disruption were exacerbated by emergency and non-emergency road closures by utility companies, resulting in gridlock, children and young people not able to arrive at school on time, teachers having to act as traffic wardens, and residents arriving late for work. Lib-Dem local district councillor, Lorraine Grocott, has sought answers from the county council about why the Birmingham Road works have taken so long, and why they were not co-ordinated more effectively in the first place. I recently hosted meetings with utility companies to address those serious issues, and I was disappointed that the Conservative portfolio holder for transport and planning did not come. This is not just about inconvenience; it is about the impact on small businesses, which lose footfall and money, especially when our town is gridlocked and there are road closures. It is also about the impact on the daily life of residents, on carers trying to get to appointments, and on families getting children to school. Most frustrating is that it is avoidable. Yes, we need local authorities to be properly resourced and funded, but we also need them to plan better, to co-ordinate roadworks more effectively, and to ensure that contractors do the job well and are more responsive to the communities they serve. Let us give our communities the roads but also the local leadership that they deserve.

20:06:00

I am pleased to speak in this important debate. As I travelled down this morning, I took a moment to appreciate the headline of my local newspaper, the Eastern Daily Press, which also happens to be the local newspaper of the Conservative spokesperson, the hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew). It stated: “Norfolk council starts work to resurface 320 miles of roads” It is almost as if the editor had been reading today’s Order Paper. That is significant, because today marks the start of the £12 million of investment into improving roads in Norfolk. I am sure it will be a well-read article because Norfolk is a large rural county, and as such we have an extensive road network, although sadly far too many roads are in a bad state of repair. That resurfacing of 320 miles this financial year is a welcome increase on the 280 miles completed last year—an increase because of the funding that was awarded to Norfolk county council by this Labour Government, who I am very proud of. It is a joy to see the hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham here, and I am sure that in his earlier speech he just omitted to thank the Labour Government for that significant sum of money, because Norfolk received one of the largest sums of money in the entire country for road resurfacing. For the past decade I have been a Norfolk county councillor. I was elected in 2013, with continuous service until I resigned in March this year. During that time I led for the Labour group on roads, transport and the environment. When I was first elected back in 2013, our highways maintenance backlog sat at around £40 million annually. The most recent figure from a few weeks ago when I resigned had increased to £70 million—worrying and disappointing, but inevitable given the extensive cuts to local council funding during the past 14 years of Conservative government. Inflation, particularly construction-related inflation, is also a significant contributory factor, and in the last year alone, the repairs backlog in Norfolk has gone up by 20%. It is particularly difficult in Norfolk. As I said, we are a large rural county and we have more than 6,000 miles of road. It is especially difficult in my South West Norfolk constituency, given our routine flooding issues and our soil make-up—frankly, we are either too sandy or very wet, and that inevitably impacts road integrity. Damage and injury due to potholes in Norfolk have resulted in the county council paying out almost £120,000 in compensation in the 2023-24 financial year, with a total of 228 successful claims. There were 150 claims and a total bill of £66,000 the year before, so that is further evidence of the worsening problem. I am sure that all hon. Members routinely receive correspondence or comments on the doorstep about potholes. That is why I was delighted that the Government have pledged £1.6 billion for potholes, which I am sure will go a long way towards addressing the potholes in our roads that have been left for too long. I note the comments that have been made about Staffordshire. In 2024, the RAC showed that Stoke-on-Trent was the area where people had to wait the longest average time for individual potholes to be fixed, followed by Westminster. Norfolk was in third place—on average it took 482 days to fix a pothole in my county. Connectivity is essential for my constituents, so I was supportive when the Transport Secretary unveiled £4.8 billion in funding for National Highways to deliver crucial road schemes and to maintain motorways and major A roads, and we were pleased to welcome the Roads Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham South (Lilian Greenwood), recently. The cash will mean progress on pivotal schemes, such as improvements to the A47 around Norwich, which I hope that some of my South West Norfolk constituents will benefit from. The Government’s growth agenda is reliant not just on building but on repairing and fixing the basic infrastructure on which this country relies. It is central to delivering a national decade of renewal that will lead to improved living standards, furthering productivity and securing Britain’s economic future through delivering our plan for change. We inherited a mess but we are getting on with fixing Britain’s roads across the country, including in my home county of Norfolk.

20:11:00

Glasgow’s longest and straightest road is Great Western Road, or the A82, as it is also known. It begins in the city centre, and stretches through the west end and beyond the city boundary. It is the route that people are likely to take if they are travelling to the west coast of Scotland, and it has been dubbed Glasgow’s coolest street, an accolade I strongly support, as a sizeable part of it is either within my constituency of Glasgow West or marks the boundary with Glasgow North. In spite of its importance, like every other road in Glasgow, it is plagued by potholes. I defy anyone to drive, walk or cycle more than 200 yards along its length and not see a pothole. Thanks to the Glasgow Times, we now know that in 2023, potholes on Great Western Road were responsible for 1,451 reports to the city council, the highest in Scotland. At night and in winter the situation is worse: people sometimes cannot see the potholes or they find that they are so deep that they retain rainwater, so they look as if they are a clear stretch of road. Cars are damaged and pedestrians, cyclists and drivers are put at risk. However, Great Western Road is not unique. In fact, in the past two years in Glasgow, compensation to drivers has almost doubled, while the amount of additional money spent on repairing potholes has decreased by 20%. As we know, this year the Scottish Government received their largest ever budget settlement in the 26 years of devolution, but unfortunately little of that was passed on to hard pressed councils. Glasgow alone has lost out on over £400 million since 2014, even though it has been SNP controlled since 2017. It is estimated that the city needs to spend £104 million repairing potholes, with the backlog for Scotland standing at a whopping £2.56 billion. As the hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont), who is no longer in his place, mentioned earlier, as a former councillor I also know how hard the staff in the Glasgow city council roads department work, but they need to be given the resources to do the job. The hon. Gentleman also mentioned utility companies. I have a particular bugbear about utility companies: there does not seem to be any way of enforcing or even encouraging them to do a job, do it once and do it well. My own road has been dug up three times in the last two years by different utility companies. In this day and age, we could surely make that better for residents and for the utility companies, who must be literally pouring money down the holes that they dig. I want to draw attention to the situation of the Clyde tunnel, which is partly in my constituency. As its name suggests, it is a north-south vehicular tunnel that runs underneath the River Clyde. It is a very important road because it connects most of Glasgow, one way or another, to the Queen Elizabeth university hospital, among other locations. However, the Clyde tunnel is only allocated the same amount for repair as any other standard stretch of road, and that has resulted in an £820,000 maintenance shortfall every single year. As a result, Glasgow city council is now thinking about applying a toll to the road, and I think that would be absolutely crazy. The council is considering imposing it only on those who live outside Glasgow, but I really do not know how people will prove where they live before they go into the tunnel. I am sure that the £500 million that this Labour Government have allocated to alleviate the problem in England and Wales will make a real difference. It is therefore to be hoped that the Scottish Government will pay close attention to this Government’s actions and learn from them for the good of all Scottish road users, and to allow our tourism and our economy generally to grow as it should.

20:16:00

I thank the Secretary of State for opening the debate. I think it is the most interesting debate we have had since we debated buses—it is fantastic. I am proud to call Edinburgh my home, and I love the fact that tourists come from all over the world to see the city. However, I am often ashamed of what they encounter on arrival, particularly the potholes that litter the city—especially, it feels like, in Edinburgh South West. It is not just in Edinburgh, however; Scotland’s roads are in a horrendous state, with more than 400,000 potholes reported to local authorities since 2021. The state of our roads, as we heard earlier, is a great visual way of understanding local Government finances. What we see on our roads is replicated in our schools and our social care. There are particular issues in Edinburgh. As I mentioned earlier, Edinburgh receives the lowest per capita funding of any council in Scotland. It is absolutely shameful for a capital city to be treated in that way. Since Labour took control of the city in 2022, we have made real efforts to improve our roads. I spoke to the transport convenor, Councillor Stephen Jenkinson, who happened to be my election agent last year—thanks to him—and he informed me that Edinburgh’s independently assessed road condition indicator has improved by 4.5% in the past year. That is the highest ever improvement in a single year. Of course, that is just a start, and what really matters is what people see when they step out of their house. The maintenance list for this year was published just last week—pulled together by an excellent council officer called Sean Gilchrist, if we are praising council officers this evening. Among the 500,000 square metres of roads and footpaths that have been resurfaced, I was pleased to see that many had been raised by my Edinburgh South West constituents. We have a pothole probe machine; in Edinburgh, we call it a pothole killer, and I think it tops the league table. It has filled 22,000 square metres of potholes, so it has been busy. The UK Government have created a dedicated pothole repair fund for councils south of the border. It stands at £1.6 billion, including £500 million of new money, so tens of millions of pounds have made their way to Scotland via the Barnett consequentials to fill potholes. That money was handed to Scottish Government Ministers, but they have set up no similar fund. Instead, they just blame councils for potholes. John Swinney, the First Minister, says that councils already have enough money to fix our roads, despite the fact that, as we heard earlier from my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow West (Patricia Ferguson), the national backlog is somewhere between £2.5 billion and £3 billion. It is not just about the cost of filling the potholes; Cycling UK estimates that across the UK, one cyclist dies every week because of a pothole, so the cost is immeasurable. Enough is enough. Scotland’s pothole crisis cannot continue. The SNP Government must show some level of ambition—the same level of ambition as the UK Government—when it comes to potholes. I am disappointed that no SNP Members are here this evening to answer that. Before I conclude, I will address something even more important than the state of our roads. It is not buses; it is the state of our pavements. In many cases, pavement conditions are worse than those on our roads. I was really pleased that the Secretary of State for Transport mentioned pavements, and I hope that the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew), will do so in his summing up, because I did not hear him speak about them. If we are serious about creating a more active and equal nation, we must discuss pavement conditions every time we talk about road conditions. There is an easy and low-cost way in which the Government could improve our footpaths, and that is by giving local authorities the power to introduce a pavement parking ban. A complete ban in Edinburgh last year has transformed the city and will lead to better quality pavements over time. I hope that towns and cities across England will soon have the same powers.

20:20:00

According to the RAC, Derbyshire is the area with the most potholes on record in England. The Conservative-run county of Derbyshire had a whopping 90,000 potholes last year, with the next-worst area having more than 20,000 fewer. Potholes are not just an issue for motorists, damaging their cars and racking up big repair costs; as the Secretary of State was absolutely right to say, they are a safety issue. For cyclists, pedestrians, people using mobility aids and those with visual impairments, poorly maintained road surfaces can make even heading to the local shops more dangerous than it needs to be. This Government’s £1.6 billion investment in potholes means £75 million for the East Midlands combined county authority, so Derby and Derbyshire will benefit hugely from this Government’s funding, but we all know that it is the job of both central Government and local government to get the work done. As Derbyshire county council has been Conservative-led since 2017, fixing those potholes only scratches the surface of the work that is needed. On 1 May, residents in Derbyshire will have the opportunity to vote for a Labour-run county council that, together with this Government, can work to provide the properly maintained roads that we want. In Derby, we are approaching the third anniversary of the closure of the bridge to Darley Abbey Mills as a result of disrepair and safety concerns. Darley Abbey Mills is a beautiful UNESCO site with a rich history dating back to the 1700s, and it is now home to dozens of businesses, from Darley Abbey Wines to Burton’s Automotive, and from the West Mill wedding venue to Reinvention Fitness. The closure of the bridge was hugely damaging for businesses and difficult for residents. Derby city council built a temporary pedestrian bridge in 2022, which is a really important mitigation. It is functional, but it is not reflective of the stunning site on the River Derwent, and it is only temporary. Local Labour councillors and I have long called for a new, permanent bridge, and we have engaged with businesses and residents about it. We have now seen a massive step forward, with our Labour Mayor of the East Midlands allocating the funding for a feasibility study for the bridge. That is a key milestone. Replacing the bridge would make such a difference to local businesses and residents, but just a year ago, hope was running out. The election of a mayor who has listened and worked with local councillors and businesses has brought back hope to the situation. It gives hope to us all, because everyone will have road infrastructure projects in their constituencies. I hope that the elections on 1 May will bring more Labour councillors to work with Labour mayors and a Labour Government to fix our roads and deliver the road infrastructure that our communities want.

20:24:00

For 14 long years, road users in Bournemouth got a raw deal. Motorists pay their taxes, but they have got little back. Bournemouth and the south-west have been left behind and left out, but no longer. The broken roads that our Labour Government inherited are not only risking lives, but costing working families, drivers and businesses hundreds if not thousands of pounds in avoidable vehicle repairs. Fixing the basic infrastructure that this country and our town rely on is central to delivering national renewal, improving living standards and securing the future of Bournemouth and Britain. This is also a question of trust. When I was going around knocking on doors in the two years before the election and during the general election itself, people said to me on the doorstep, “You seem like a nice guy. We want to vote for you, but how do we know that when you go to Parliament, you will not turn out like the last lot and not deliver on the promises you said you would keep?” I can now go to people’s doorsteps and talk about this Labour Government’s prioritisation of fixing our roads, matching words with deeds. We have committed significant sums of money, at a time of difficult fiscal circumstances, to repair our roads. We are not only investing an additional £4.8 billion to deliver vital road schemes and maintain major roads across the country to get Britain moving as part of our plan for change, but handing councils a record £1.6 billion to repair roads and fill millions of potholes across the country. My own Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council has received more than £10 million from the Government to fix our roads over the next 12 months. I spoke to our council leader on 28 March to make the point that we need to use the money or lose it. She has a long list of roads that need fixing, and I am confident that they will be fixed. The lack of investment to date is a false economy, because when we do not invest in our roads in the first instance, we just store up bigger problems and bigger repair costs. My hope is that by investing in our roads now, we can save the taxpayer money and finally have roads that are roadworthy. Investing in roads saves local councils money. In 2023, BCP council had to dish out £16,000 in compensation because of the frailty of our roads. We also need to get our fundamentals right. We have heard in this debate about how utility companies will swan in, dig up a road that has been repaired and make it worse. We need to ensure that that does not happen. We also need to think about our pavements. I have lost count of the number of elderly ladies with whom I have spoken on the doorstep who say that they would go into our district centres and town centres, but they are too scared of slipping on broken pavements, cracking a hip and not being able to get the hip replacement they need quickly enough, because they know that the NHS was ruined under the last Conservative Government. I commend BCP council and the council officers for targeting the key roads in my constituency that need fixing. I am pleased that Cranleigh Road and Gainsborough Road have had major work completed, and I am pleased that treatment work has been completed on Wheaton Road, Abinger Road, Leaphill Road, Scotter Road and Roberts Road. I called for those works on constituents’ behalf. I am pleased to see plans for the resurfacing of sections of Ashley Road in Boscombe as part of the towns fund, which is a much-needed investment in that area. I am also pleased that we will see significant works on Holdenhurst Road. That is particularly important to support not only road users—households and families—but our tradespeople. When I knock on doors and talk with our small business owners and tradespeople, they constantly talk about having their tools stolen and the fact that repairing or replacing them can cost up to £2,730. The threat of crime is a constant worry, but their roads just are not being fixed, despite the fact that they pay so much money in taxes. I will close by saying that road safety is not only about repairing the potholes on our roads; it is about making sure that we invest in pedestrian crossings. I have been working with Councillor Sharon Carr-Brown of Queen’s Park and Charminster ward to introduce a zebra crossing on Queen’s Park Avenue to enable schoolchildren to more easily access that busy street. Currently, the Department for Transport does not permit the use of side road zebras on the public highway. Using them would allow stretched council budgets to go further in improving the public’s ability to safely cross the roads. I have been calling on the Department for Transport to support local councillors’ calls, and my own calls, for better zebra crossing provision. I am glad that we are ending the pothole plague. I commend my residents and constituents for calling for improved roads, and I will continue to work alongside them to make the case for more funding and better investment in our roads.

20:29:00

Under the previous Government, it too often felt like we were in the passenger seat with no one at the wheel, driving down the road with no sense of direction and hitting bump after bump along the way. That is not just a rather strained metaphor; it is a reality for too many of my constituents. I am pleased to say, however, that following Labour’s success in winning control of Bracknell Forest council in 2023, the new Labour administration immediately set to work to address what it felt—and what I know—to be a huge priority for local residents, setting out a plan to invest £5 million over four years. That includes an extra £1 million over the baseline in this year’s budget. On top of that local investment, I am proud that the new Labour Government have provided a 35% uplift in Bracknell’s potholes budget—that is £3.2 million more.

I thank my hon. Friend and neighbour for giving way, and congratulate him on the excellent speech he is making. Does he agree that potholes are a costly, dangerous menace on our roads, and does he welcome the decisive action this Government are taking to fill those potholes, which includes nearly £12 million for my constituency?

Absolutely—I am very happy to do so. The reason why that investment is so badly needed, in Reading West and Mid Berkshire as well as in Bracknell, is the huge backlog of repairs we have inherited from the previous Government. As well as resurfacing major and residential roads that have not received the support they need for too long, this investment will allow for other upgrades, including a new toucan crossing between Halifax Road and Ranelagh Drive in Bracknell. Bracknell Forest council is also using that investment to address the pressing need for more parking. That is a massive issue in Bracknell, which has a number of old estates—previously social housing—where there is simply not enough parking for residents. However, because we have been putting residents’ priorities first, we have delivered more parking on estates through the grass verge conversion scheme. It is slow progress, and there is much more to be done, not least because it requires agreement between the local authority and the social housing providers. Although the Minister has very kindly spoken to me about this issue before, I ask her what more support she can set out. It is clear that these investments are not “job done”; there is a huge amount more to do to address the issues of potholes and parking. That is why I welcome the scrutiny enabled by the Government through annual progress reports, so that residents can see the actions that we and the local council are taking on their behalf. From October, there will be a duty to listen to residents’ priorities for what work needs to be done and where it needs to happen. I am proud to say that I believe Bracknell Forest council already does so, but extra focus is always welcome. I also want to touch on the issue of roadworks caused by utility companies. During the general election, there were a large number of roadworks in Crowthorne in my constituency, so much so that the joke on the doorstep was, “How do you leave Crowthorne? You don’t.” Crowthorne is a lovely place—I am very proud to live there—but one does occasionally have to leave. Just this weekend, I have been dealing with utility companies’ roadworks down Yorktown Road in Sandhurst. That road, which is the main road through Sandhurst, has been repeatedly dug up by utility companies. One constituent commented on Facebook, “I have worked out that since the start of the year, Yorktown Road has only been free from extremely disruptive roadworks for about 30 days”—that is 30 of the 100 or so days we have had this year. Can the Minister tell us what more we can do to make sure that those disruptive roadworks caused by utility companies do not repeatedly hit the same stretch of road, which sadly all too often leads to what was a resurfaced road only last year being left in a terrible state of repair? In the short time I have left, I will touch on another important element of our road network: buses. I am pleased that under this Labour Government, we have seen a £1 million investment into Bracknell Forest buses. That is more than in the previous three years combined. That has seen massive improvements to our local services, including the 194 bus, which now serves Buckler’s Park in Crowthorne. That has been able to leave, I am pleased to say. The X94 is now stopping at Martins Heron station, with more journeys between Heatherwood and Frimley Park hospitals, connecting our train stations and our hospitals up with our bus network. The council has also announced new companion passes for companions of disabled passengers to travel for free. More is coming with the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill, so that we can see greater local control over our bus network. With this Government, we are back in the driver’s seat, back behind the wheel and, I am proud to say, driving on resurfaced roads. There is more to do, and there are more potholes to be filled, but that is this Government’s plan for change, and it is delivering.

20:35:00

Driving through Stafford has become an absolute nightmare. For years now, we have been in the grip of what can only be described as a plague of roadworks. It is not the odd disruption here or there, but an ongoing onslaught that has affected nearly every part of our town. To be fair, it is not the first time I have spoken to the House about how poorly residents across Stafford, Eccleshall and the villages have been treated by Staffordshire county council when it comes to roadworks and maintenance, but I am pleased that today I get to do so at length because, frankly, the people I represent deserve to have their voices heard loud and clear. We face simultaneous disruption from a litany of roadworks across town, of which I will name just a few. On Station Road, works are about to begin. On Market Square, another set are about to start. On Tipping Street, it is the same story. There is Radford Bank, which has been of particular concern, as well as Eastgate Street, North Walls, Gaolgate Street, Malt Mill Lane and Beaconside, which is a major artery now reduced to a bottleneck. Then there is Corporation Street, where the disruption is so severe that traffic is rerouting through Co-operative Street, causing real problems for residents. I spoke to a constituent on the doorstep only a few weeks ago who told me that they feel like they are stuck in a constant state of dangerous disruption and that their small road has become a permanent rat run, and they are not alone. I did for a moment, when I was writing this speech, consider doing a full list of all the roadworks in Stafford and giving the House the date period, a bit like the shipping forecast, but we worked out that it would take the whole debate. While it is right that roads are repaired, I cannot condone the cavalier attitude shown towards the needs of residents and businesses through poor communication and poor engagement. The same roads are being dug up or being planned to be dug up on repeat because of a lack of strategic planning between organisations. Staffordshire county council is receiving nearly £40 million in funding next year from the local transport authority. Alongside Stoke-on-Trent, it will receive a further £11.6 million in additional cash for fixing potholes and road maintenance. That is this Labour Government putting their money where their mouth is. This Labour Government are providing funding with money that is there, rather than promises and unfunded commitments. This Labour Government are handing councils the cash and the certainty they need, and it is now up to them to get on with the job, to put that money to use and to prove they are delivering for their communities. After years of neglect from successive Conservative Governments, it is welcome news to my constituents that there are safeguards in place for this funding. If Staffordshire county council does not show how it is improving our roads, it will risk losing 25% of the funding boost. The council must publish reports on its website by 30 June this year, detailing how much it is spending, how many more potholes it has filled, what percentage of its roads are in what condition and how it is minimising streetworks disruption. My constituents in Stafford, Eccleshall and the villages deserve better than the last Conservative Government and the poor communication and treatment they have received from Conservative-led Staffordshire county council. I will continue to raise their concerns until we see real change in how these decisions are made, communicated and managed by Staffordshire’s Conservative county council.

20:39:00

It is a pleasure to speak about road maintenance and the importance of safe, accessible roads in Northumberland and western Newcastle. Under the last Government, the condition of the county’s roads was neglected, ignored and disregarded, which damaged the basic infrastructure and social fabric of my constituency. Throughout the constituency, I am regularly confronted by roads that have been left in a state of disrepair—for instance, the B6307. I could name many more, but in Hexham, Prudhoe, Acomb, Anick, Hepscott and Haltwhistle, and even in smaller villages such as Ogle, crumbling surfaces, erosions and deep potholes are rife. When I speak to local people on the doorstep, the first thing that they generally ask me about is a fault in their local road. Quite small roads in Northumberland experience industrial traffic, and potholes can cause real damage and danger. It is a disgrace that the safety of residents in my constituency is being jeopardised by poor road surfaces that not only put the wellbeing of residents at risk, but cause considerable damage to vehicles and inflict expensive repairs on drivers. One example is the road in Newton village, which is only wide enough to fit one car at a time, requiring drivers to pull over regularly. Because of the erosions on the sides of the road, drivers are experiencing significant damage to their vehicles and, as a result, increasing financial burdens. Because of rampant flooding on the road, the county council’s attempted patch repairs are often undone within minutes. When I visited the area with members of Newton by the Sea parish council, I saw with my own eyes the repairs being carried out and, within minutes, the potholes being flooded. Residents driving to pick up their children from school, young people driving to access employment, people driving to the shops and those cycling to explore the wonderful landscape that makes north-east England the best place in the country to visit should not have to regularly encounter safety hazards or experience vehicle damage because of those road surfaces. This is inhibiting access to opportunities throughout the region, but the Conservative administration in the county council have taken their eyes off the road. They are failing to communicate timeframes for repairs, and failing to improve the condition of local roads. Even where basic repairs have been provided, they are slapdash. Lawrence O’Donnell, the Labour candidate for Prudhoe North and Wylam, tells me that on Wylam bridge the same pothole has been patched eight times in 12 months. It seems to me that the council is disregarding the basic welfare of residents and letting down residents across Northumberland, and on 1 May we will have the opportunity to vote it out. The community should not be neglected owing to the Conservative majority’s ignorance of rural life and affairs and its contempt for the people of Northumberland. I am pleased that this Labour Government have committed additional money to delivering vital road schemes to fix our local roads. While the Minister is here, let me echo the calls from my hon. Friend the Member for North Northumberland (David Smith) for the Government to consider the urgently needed safety work on the A1, and, this time, to ensure that any work that is done is properly funded. Let me also make my own pitch for the A69 to receive similar treatment. It is clear that ours is the only party that will prioritise local roads, and that we need a Labour-backed council in Northumberland to ensure that that happens. There are a few more points that I hope the Minister will address when she responds to the debate. I have recently met quite a few local farmers who have told me that they want electric vehicle charging points in their farm shop car parks, but are finding it difficult to obtain grants from the Department for Transport. They are being told that these are only available for service stations, but there are not a huge number of service stations on the A69. Putting charging points in farm shop car parks would be a great way of boosting our net zero credentials and ensuring that more people throughout Northumberland access farm shops and put more money into the local rural economy. It is easy to play a hackneyed political game in this context, but it is not just politicians who benefit from potholes being fixed. It is the public—the people doing the school run and the people driving to work, whether they are going to work at Egger or Essity, or whether they are travelling to Newcastle or to Carlisle across my vast constituency, the biggest in England. Let me use my last 15 seconds to describe my visit to Newcastle airport, where I saw the runway being relaid with tarmac from—I was told—my constituency. It would be great to see some of that knowledge, skill and expertise put to use to fix the roads of Northumberland.

20:44:00

People in Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket must navigate pockmarked and pimpled streets—how depressing and frustrating! People are forced to accept a fear of damage or even injury as a precondition of using our roads, and they are locked in extended battles for compensation with the council and their insurers. We all know about this problem. Only 36% of local roads in the east of England are in good structural condition. People talk about the effects of potholes on motorists, and quite rightly—they are dangerous, damaging to cars and a daily irritant for many of us. However, it is not just car owners who are affected by our roads, and many people know a horror story. It is no surprise to me, having sat in this debate, that my son, a student at Keele University in Stoke-on-Trent, was involved in a horrendous bicycle crash as he came down a steep hill and went head over heels when his front wheel landed in a pothole. Cyclists know all about potholes. The evidence suggests that between 2017 and 2023, one person per week was killed or seriously injured while cycling, so potholes cause deaths. This is a trend that has not shown any sign of abating. Bus drivers and taxi operators cannot do their job safely when the roads underneath them simply do not work, and our emergency services cannot help us if they are expected to use crumbling roads. I have heard of paramedics whose ambulances have been damaged, to the point of being undriveable, by hitting a pothole on the way to a call-out. Better, smoother roads will support our local economies, improve transport and, most importantly, limit the number of accidents, so it is wonderful to hear that the Government are at last doing something after more than a decade in which our local roads were simply ignored under the Tories. In Suffolk, the effect of the decline in highway spending—last year, it was down by almost 25% compared with 2015—can be easily seen, but that is already changing. Potholes are getting fixed more quickly, because our local authorities are getting a much-needed injection of cash from this Labour Government. In Suffolk, they are getting an extra £11.7 million this year for that purpose. This Labour Government are taking this issue seriously and delivering for the people of Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, and I am glad to see that they are not simply papering over the cracks. They will use the latest tech to ensure that public money is spent as effectively as possible on lasting repairs so that our roads do not split up again. Brilliant new pothole-filling machines and surfacing technologies will save us money, and it was great to hear about the advances in technology from my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Dr Gardner). Ministers have taken the decisive action that the previous Government put off for too long, and I hope the rest of the House can join me in congratulating them on that.

20:47:00

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate, because the state of our roads is absolutely critical for safe travel, transportation and logistics, particularly in communities that rely on the road network. As a former councillor, I greatly welcome the Government’s provision of £1.6 billion for road maintenance in England, and I am sure that colleagues who have been councillors will agree that few topics flood local politicians’ mailboxes more than potholes and the condition of our roads. Motorists, cyclists and pedestrians alike have been failed by consecutive Conservative Governments, with council budgets slashed to the bone, and their Scottish counterparts are no better off. A report by the Local Government Benchmarking Framework found that the continued budget pressures on local councils have resulted in a 20% reduction in spending on road maintenance, and we see the budget cuts physically etched into the tarmac across our cities, towns and villages. Hon. Members have spoken about the need to resurface roads, rather than just fill in potholes. Although that is ideal in many situations, the reality is that councils have not been able to afford to do so, so they fill in potholes that break up a few months down the line. I recently met councillors in the Bathgate and Linlithgow constituency to discuss how years of Scottish Government austerity have left our roads in a dire condition. From Bo’ness to Bathgate, we see it all over the place. Councillors are frustrated, hard-working council staff are really frustrated and local residents are frustrated and angry. As my former council role trying to deliver road improvements highlighted, the state of the roads all comes back to local government funding. The hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) borrowed a few of the adjectives I had noted down. In Scotland, we have had 18 years of savage cuts, chronic ringfencing and brutal underfunding of local services by the SNP Government.

I have huge sympathy with what the hon. Lady is saying about the underfunding and lack of support from the Scottish Government, but would she sympathise with me? In the London borough of Havering, we have the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority, which take huge sums of money from my constituents, yet we do not see much of it spent in places such as Romford. Roads such as the A12 and the A127, which the Mayor of London is meant to look after through Transport for London, are often neglected. So there is a common theme about these higher authorities that take money away from our constituents, but do not spend it on the people paying the costs.

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention, but it will be no surprise to him that I cannot agree with him, given the years of massive underfunding that former Conservative Governments inflicted on councils across England. We have had years and years of chronic underfunding of local services, so I know that the £1.6 billion will be appreciated by councils across England. However, it is yet to be confirmed that the resulting additional funding for Scotland will reach local government. I wrote to the Deputy First Minister earlier this year to find out when the money would be passed to councils in Scotland. In her response, she made it clear that it is for the Scottish Government to decide how that additional money will be spent, and that there was no guarantee that it will make it to councils, as my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) has also discovered. As so often with the SNP Scottish Government, funding is passed over from the UK Government and it is never heard of again. It is used to plug mismanaged white elephants, to fund a research unit on independence or to finance shadow embassies overseas. While receiving the largest ever Budget settlement for Scotland, the Scottish Government have not yet committed to the very basic steps of repairing our roads and delivering a safer environment for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians alike. People across England will benefit from the huge investment of this Labour Government, and the SNP Scottish Government must not stand in the way of this Labour Government delivering improved roads for the people of Scotland. Our motorists, cyclists, residents and councils deserve the same commitment and ambition to improving our roads as this Labour Government are showing in England.

20:53:00

There is nothing more symbolic of broken Britain and the mess we inherited than the state of our pothole-riddled roads. Bumpy, crumbling and unsafe roads have become the norm rather than the exception. For far too long, our infrastructure was allowed to deteriorate, with cash-strapped councils having to prioritise vital services. The damage has built up year after year, and now it is a problem we are all facing across the country. I was quite flabbergasted when I heard the hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew) say that roads were better for motorists in 2024 than they were 15 or 20 years back. I would like to invite the shadow Minister to come and visit Wolverhampton North East, because he would be hard-pressed to find residents who share that view. In Wolverhampton North East, I hear it on the doorstep every time I speak to residents about their priorities and their issues: they are fed up with swerving potholes; they are angry about how much money they have had to spend on repairs; and let us not forget the rising insurance premiums, a direct result of the number of claims people have to make due to damaged roads. With this Government, things are beginning to change. I welcome the Government committing £1.6 billion to local highways maintenance across England. Of that, £500 million will go directly to fixing 7 million potholes. That is a huge step forward, but because of the dire state of the roads, it is just the beginning. For Wolverhampton, that will support £9.7 million in funding for this financial year, a significant investment. But our roads are in such poor condition that a single investment will not fix everything overnight. The problem is years in the making and it will take time to repair the damage caused by years of neglect. There is not a quick fix here, so I welcome a strategic programme to improve roads across Wolverhampton: resurfacing, surface stressing, and preventative treatments that will last. To everyone who has reached out to me, thank you. Your frustrations are justified. We know there is more to do and we cannot fix every road overnight, but, after years of frustration, with this record investment cash-strapped councils can finally get on with the job.

20:56:00

I am glad to have this opportunity to address a problem that comes up in almost every street when I am out door-knocking in Stevenage and our villages: ever more potholes and the general disrepair of our roads. When I made a point to someone recently about the importance of tackling potholes, they dismissed it as a trivial matter. I happen to think that it is very serious. It is very serious when I am told by a parent of a low-income family, just about getting by, that the pothole she had reported to her Conservative county councillor time and again had not been fixed and ended up causing hundreds of pounds of damage to her vehicle. It is simply not an option for her to pay for it, so the family has to take significant time out of their week to make a claim. Then there was the young teacher on her bike who hit a pothole, tumbled over and sustained serious injuries, which caused her to miss several weeks of school. The worst thing is that this should all be preventable. Statistics from the online retailer Blackcircles.com show that Hertfordshire had the highest average payout for pothole-related claims in the UK, with an average of £367 per claim in 2023. That amount is significantly higher than the national average of £261 per claim. I can tell you why that is. Our Conservative-run county council in Hertfordshire has totally failed on road repairs, leaving our roads in Stevenage and the villages of Knebworth, Codicote, Datchworth and Aston in a state of total disrepair. The first reason it has failed is bottom-up. Conservative councillors generally are not proactive in our community, so council officers and the highways team are not getting the quality of reporting on where the issues are and what the priorities should be from the ground up. The second issue is top-down. Fourteen years of funding cuts from successive Conservative Governments to local councils in an era of austerity was cheer-led by Conservative county councillors in Hertfordshire, while their budgets declined and outcomes got worse. Stevenage Conservatives recently claimed that Hertfordshire was the best-run county council in the country. I gently suggest that when 14 years of austerity devastate a council’s budget and local Conservatives are in charge of allocating what is left, we end up with a council ranked by The Times last year as the 172nd best performing in the country, with very little left for the road repairs. There is, believe it or not, a third issue: this is the existential one. The Conservative cabinet member for highways at Hertfordshire county council, also a Stevenage councillor, does not even understand what a pothole is. In 2023, he proudly claimed that outstanding road repairs in Hertfordshire were lower than the national average, with only 4% of B and C roads requiring outstanding repairs compared with 6% nationally, which all sounds fairly positive—until it is revealed that we are not comparing like for like. Hertfordshire classifies a pothole as being at least 300 mm wide and 50 mm deep, while just next door in Essex, they only have to be 100 mm across, and, further away in Trafford, just 40 mm deep. A road user may think they have hit a pothole in Hertfordshire, but, according to the council, it must just be their imagination. All the while, the council would rather change the definition of a pothole or wait for people to claim for damages, costing the council more than it would to fix potholes for the future in the first place. Thankfully, we are turning a corner. This new Labour Government are on the side of road users in their cars, on the buses and on their bicycles, and they take the issue of fixing potholes as seriously as residents expect them to. That is why our county has received £9.3 million for road repairs to fix as many potholes as possible—a marked change from 14 years of Tory austerity. While this extra funding is welcome, the public deserve to know how their councils will use that funding to improve their local roads, so I am pleased the Government are requiring councils to show progress or risk losing 25% of the funding boost. The question on all my residents’ lips now is: can we really trust the failing Conservative-run Hertfordshire county council and the unseen and unbothered Conservative county councillors to use this money properly? We have a new Labour Government facilitating change through these measures, but we also need effective councillors to deliver that change in every street, community, town and village across Hertfordshire and the wider country. Where councillors like those in Tory-run Hertfordshire fail to deliver that change, our residents can and should choose new ones who can.

21:01:00

If I could walk 500 miles, Madam Deputy Speaker, and then walk 500 more, it would be a miracle, particularly after all this bobbing. [Laughter.] However, I would also have walked the full length of the road network of Doncaster. Unfortunately, due to the pothole crisis facing every authority in our country, the chances are that I would have tripped up and fallen down long before I got to anyone’s door. Such is the state of the roads in Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme and the amount of potholes I have reported and had repaired over the past few years that I am also called “Pothole Pitcher” on social media. Of course, this is no joke; it is a very real issue that affects people’s lives, as the Lister family, who live in Hatfield, in my constituency, are aware. On his 18th birthday, Josh was driving down an avenue when he hit a huge pothole that ripped through the side of his tyre and shot him on to the kerb, leaving a relatively newly passed driver not only in a degree of shock but fearful of driving ever again. He had an 18th birthday he will never forget, but for all the wrong reasons. Just two months later, his mum Gemma fell over a pothole on a footpath, causing her to sustain serious injury to her arms, hands and knees, with the impact lasting many months. Potholes are not a trivial matter; they are hugely serious, and ruin lives. Like most places, Doncaster and Axholme’s roads and their networks are one of their most precious and most expensive assets. Between the more volatile weather, increased traffic and heavier vehicles, the cost of maintaining those assets has risen at the same time as the council’s budget for dealing with them was cut by half by the previous Government. We now have a repair backlog sitting in the hundreds of millions in Doncaster alone, where our council is fighting tooth and nail just to keep it at that, while trying also to resolve the pothole crisis. Thankfully, this Government have recognised the importance of tackling this crisis. They have increased funding to local authorities, with £2.3 million for North Lincolnshire and £6.7 million for South Yorkshire. We are finally giving our mayors like Ros Jones and our councils, who know their area and know where to invest, the tools they need not only to fight to stand still but to really make improvements. This is just the beginning.

The hon. Gentleman says we are finally giving tools to mayors, but does he not agree that it is surely better to give funding directly to local councils to spend on their local communities? If we give it to a mayor, it will get spent across wider areas where the mayor has priorities, but it will not necessarily go to areas where the constituents who we represent need the money spent.

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. I referred to Mayor Ros Jones, who is leader of the council in Doncaster and knows that area specifically—in her case, she is also called a mayor. Devolved mayors also know their area very well, and they work with their area and their constituencies to ensure that the money goes to the right places at the right time. Our councils have been crying out for help for 14 years. I am pleased to say that Westminster is finally listening. It is listening to the Lister family, who I mentioned, to our constituents and to all the local authorities that desperately need this money to invest. As such, I am almost ready to relinquish the title of “Pothole Pitcher”, but I will be focusing on pavements in the future.

21:05:00

In my constituency, like in so many other constituencies we have heard about today, potholes are not just an inconvenience but a danger. They damage vehicles, put cyclists and pedestrians at risk and cost working people hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds in repairs. For carers on their rounds, parents on the school run, and small businesses making deliveries, this problem disrupts daily life and chips away at local confidence. This situation has not happened by accident. One of the last acts of the previous Conservative administration at North Tyneside council was to outsource road maintenance to Capita back in 2013 on a 15-year contract. It was a 15-year contract of poor service and inadequate outcomes. During the election campaign last year—and every week when I am knocking doors—several people shared their frustration of potholes in our local area. Residents in Shiremoor on Angerton Avenue described how they would report a pothole, then Capita would come out and gaslight them over whether the pothole existed and tell them why it would not be repaired—“it wasn’t wide enough” or “it wasn’t deep enough”. They often argued for long periods of time while more were appearing, like a frustrating game of whack-a-mole. That is the legacy of failure in North Tyneside from the last Conservative administration—a legacy we can never risk happening again. When we talk about legacies of Conservative failure, we need look no further than Conservative-run Northumberland county council. I found it extraordinary the number of Conservative Members who want to associate themselves with that council, because under the Conservatives in Northumberland we have seen staggering levels of negligence. We are now the county with the third-highest number of potholes in the entire country. Recent research has shown that 449 claims to the council for compensation due to pothole damage were successful. One might ask whether that is on par with other councils in the area. It is not. Northumberland county council does not only come out higher than all the individual local authorities within the North East combined authority, or all of them put together, but its level of successful claims is four times that of all the councils put together. There has been more than £250,000 in payouts. That is a quarter of a million pounds of taxpayer money that could have been far better spent. That is truly staggering given that the council could have avoided all that by adequately maintaining our roads. The Conservatives had their chance to fix the situation, and they failed. The roads are broken, and so is their credibility, both locally and nationally. The good news is that help is now coming from the Labour Government. Our plan for change is delivering real results, and from this month councils will receive their share of £1.6 billion in new funding to repair and maintain our roads. The North East combined authority, led by Labour Mayor Kim McGuinness, will receive over £21 million to tackle the issue head on. This is not about press releases or photo opportunities. It is about fixing the basics that communities rely on. That means fewer parents dreading the school run, fewer workers stuck in traffic caused by roadworks, and fewer elderly residents fearing a fall because of uneven pavements. We are not just filling in the holes. We are laying the foundations for the future. Labour is delivering a £4.8 billion investment in major road schemes, preventive maintenance and long-term infrastructure renewal, which will mean fewer potholes, safer roads and more confidence in our transport system. That is what governing seriously looks like: fixing the basics, supporting local economies and making life better for ordinary people. The people of Cramlington and Killingworth have waited long enough. Labour is delivering the investment, the oversight and the plan. Now it is time for councils to act and for the Conservatives to explain why they ever let things get so bad.

21:09:00

When constituents talk to me about what matters most in their day-to-day lives, roads come up time and again. Whether travelling to work, doing the school run or getting to vital medical appointments, the state of our roads affects people’s quality of life. When those roads are full of potholes and defects, and they damage vehicles and put cyclists and bikers at risk, it sends a clear message to residents: you have been forgotten. That is exactly how too many people feel in Kidsgrove, Talke, Butt Lane, Newchapel, Harriseahead and Mow Cop. Today, I want to speak up for them. Last year, Staffordshire county council launched its highway recovery plan, but many of my constituents in Kidsgrove and the surrounding area still feel like they are waiting for it to start. Time and again, residents tell me, “We report defects and we chase them up, but nothing gets done.” Roads such as Gloucester Road, Newchapel Road and Kidsgrove Bank remain in a shocking condition. Vehicles are being damaged and people are quite rightly at their wits’ end. It feels as though Kidsgrove is being treated like the poor relative, left behind while other areas move forward. Roundabouts in places like Talke Pits by the old Normid look unloved and neglected. Some older and disabled people tell me that they fear leaving their own homes because of how unsafe the pavements are. For example, on Chester Road in Talke, residents have to walk in the road as a broken pavement has been fenced off by the Conservative-led council for over four years. Let me be clear: Conservative-led Staffordshire county council is failing Kidsgrove, and that is not okay. However, just over the border in Stoke-on-Trent, we have seen a very different story. Since Labour took control of the council two years ago, the city has delivered a marked step change in how we deal with potholes. The new administration made road repairs a clear priority, and the response speaks volumes. Back in 2023, about 7,500 defects were repaired. A year later, that figure rose to over 13,000: a 76% increase in just one year under a Labour council. When the council pledged to fix 6,000 defects in six months, it not only met the target but beat it, delivering 6,500 repairs in four months. That is the difference that a Labour council makes. Under the leadership of Jane Ashworth, Stoke-on-Trent city council has also increased its own capital investment in highways by more than 10% this past year, despite the financial pressures facing councils up and down the country, because it knows that the people of Stoke-on-Trent deserve better than the crumbling roads we inherited from the previous Conservative Administration. The Labour Government are now stepping up to help, fixing the mess left behind from those 14 years. Stoke-on-Trent will receive more than £9 million and Staffordshire county council more than £19 million in new Government transport funding. It is vital that we see the results of that in Kidsgrove. Let us not forget that, back in 2022, the people of Kidsgrove put their faith in Conservative county councillors, believing that they would be strong voices for our area. Sadly, those councillors appear to have gone AWOL, leaving the residents behind. Residents in Kidsgrove deserve better than that. They deserve to know that their voices are being heard and that the money is there to put things right. I welcome the extra funding for both Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, but this cannot be about money alone; it must also be about delivery. As we have seen in Stoke-on-Trent and across the country, where the Conservatives fail to deliver, Labour steps up to pick up the pieces and gets to work. I hope that the residents of Kidsgrove and the Talke and Red Street divisions will remember this as we approach the county council elections next month. I say to Ministers and the Secretary of State: keep backing innovative councils to get the basics right, including the Labour-led Stoke-on-Trent city council. Every journey matters, and Kidsgrove should never again be treated like the poor relative. As long as I am the MP for Stoke-on-Trent North and Kidsgrove, I will continue to stand up for my local residents.

21:14:00

In my constituency of Scarborough and Whitby, the views take your breath away. Sadly, so do the potholes when your car hits one—not just when it happens, but when the repair bill arrives. According to the RAC, the cost of pothole damage to vehicles is around £600 on average, with more severe repairs costing considerably more. Potholes do not just damage cars; they damage people. One constituent has told me that when his disabled father is driven to the doctors or to hospital appointments, it is almost inevitable that they hit a pothole on the way, which causes him pain. Another Scarborough constituent told me that the journey she needed to take to York hospital to attend the pain clinic was too painful because of the quality of the roads, and that she therefore stopped making it, despite being in a huge amount of pain. The Conservative-run North Yorkshire council says that keeping our roads in the best condition for the money it has is one of the biggest challenges it faces, and that is why it is brilliant that the York and North Yorkshire combined authority will soon be receiving its share of the Labour Government’s record £1.6 billion road maintenance funding. This is the biggest one-off road maintenance funding settlement that councils have ever been given. For Mayor Skaith in York and North Yorkshire, it is £62.1 million, an increase of £16.6 million. Of course, I have spoken to the Mayor about the importance of ensuring the quality of repairs in my constituency of Scarborough and Whitby. Maple Drive in Scarborough is home to Northstead community primary school. It is a very busy road and it is littered with potholes, which are regularly reported to the council using its online tool. Workmen duly arrive to fill the potholes, but my constituents report that they soon reappear, bigger than before, leaving Maple Drive looking like a patchwork quilt—but, it has to be said, not a particularly attractive one. It is vital that we abandon the patch-and-run approach and focus on permanent and innovative repairs, especially given the cold and increasingly wet winters we encounter on the coast. I welcome the caveat attached to the money, which means that the combined authority will need to publish annual progress reports and prove to the public that the work is being done to a high standard. After years of Conservative neglect, drivers in Scarborough, Whitby and the villages can, thanks to this Labour Government, look forward to smoother, safer local roads.

With the leave of the House, I call shadow Minister Jerome Mayhew.

21:18:00

It has been an interesting debate, and one might be forgiven for thinking that there are local elections coming up. I do not know what caused me to think that, but there was there was something in the air; let us leave it at that. I am not going to go through everyone’s contribution, insightful and interesting as each of them was in its own way. I will just pick out a few highlights of the debate. I will start with my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore). Rather in the theme that I developed earlier, he referred to Bradford council’s terrible performance on potholes and said that it was leading to a loss of trust in Labour. In particular, he referenced the residents of Ilkley, who went to the trouble of having a referendum on what they should do about the state of the roads. He talked about the council’s proposal to impose speed humps and a 20 mph limit, despite 98.3% of residents voting against it. They were ignored by Labour. Then we heard from the hon. Member for Burnley (Oliver Ryan), who is in his place. He also raised the condition of his local roads, but he went on to make an interesting point when he complained of what he described as the “crumbs of levelling up”. I took advantage of the length of the debate to look up what the crumbs of levelling up were, and, in fact, £19.9 million was directed to Burnley through three town centre schemes. That was an achievement of the excellent former colleague of mine, Antony Higginbotham, who was an understated but amazingly effective Member of Parliament. I will follow the career of the current Member for Burnley closely to see whether he delivers even a fraction of that for the people of Burnley. My hon. Friend the Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) showed off about the length of his roads, which certainly put mine to shame. He was another advocate for the JCB Pothole Pro, saying that 1,889 repairs had been undertaken in six months. But what he really exposed was the repeated failure of the SNP, which has cut funding north of the border, and the lack of interest shown in this debate from SNP Members in this place, as we can see from their empty Benches.

The shadow Minister is making a gallant effort to rattle through the fantastic contributions that we have heard tonight. Will he take this opportunity to congratulate Bracknell Forest council and its Labour administration for the £5 million investment over four years in pothole repairs?

I am happy to commend any council, of whatever colour, that gets on top of its potholes. I am about improving the quality of life for the residents of this United Kingdom. I make no bones about it: if Bracknell Forest council is improving the potholes in its neck of the woods, that is great, and the same is true of Conservative-led councils. In his exposure of the SNP’s failure, my hon. Friend the Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk was joined by the hon. Members for Glasgow West (Patricia Ferguson) and for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur). They agreed that the SNP is failing the people of Scotland. I will take this opportunity, as I was asked by the hon. Member for Edinburgh South West, to highlight the need for wheelchair access on pavements. That is a very important consideration. The hon. Member for Bournemouth East (Tom Hayes) made a speech that reinforced the reputation he has already earned in this House. We heard contributions from the hon. Members for Stafford (Leigh Ingham), for Hexham (Joe Morris) and for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley), and then we heard from the hon. Member for Bathgate and Linlithgow (Kirsteen Sullivan), who, as I should have mentioned earlier, also blamed the SNP for failing motorists. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell), who made an expert intervention, levering in a reference to Romford during a speech that was entirely about Scottish issues. I learned an important lesson: he gained the maximum impact from the minimum amount of time in the Chamber—if only the rest of us had followed his example. There were contributions from the hon. Members for Wolverhampton North East (Mrs Brackenridge) and for Stevenage (Kevin Bonavia), as well as the hon. Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher), who referred to the power of mayors. That gives me an opportunity to make a shameless plug for the Conservative candidate for mayor of Doncaster, Nick Fletcher, who is a former colleague and very good friend of mine. He will be the best leader for Doncaster. There were further contributions from the hon. Member for Cramlington and Killingworth (Emma Foody) and the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent North (David Williams) —we all miss Jonathan Gullis in this place—and, finally, the hon. Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Alison Hume). I opened this debate for the Opposition by talking about the need for predictable long-term funding, which is a key issue. I wish to draw a quote to the House’s attention: “British people are bored of seeing their politicians aimlessly pointing at potholes with no real plan to fix them”. That quote is not from me, but from the Prime Minister. He was right, and he identified the problem, but he has gone on to make it worse. [Interruption.] Well, I would love to be corrected. I will give this Minister the opportunity to confirm yesterday’s calculations from the Local Government Association, which said that the Government’s actions, through their national insurance contribution tax grab from local authorities, will reduce their ability to fund roads and other important matters by £1.1 billion. Does she agree with the Local Government Association, which is of course an independent organisation? Secondly, will she confirm that the Government will increase vehicle excise duty to the tune of £1.7 billion over the next five years, and whether that dwarfs the funding that Labour has so far announced for road improvements? It is not too late. The Government could admit that they were wrong to shorten the timeframe for investment in road infrastructure. They could today commit to a 10-year funding plan. They could take this opportunity to reassure local authorities about how their funding will be received, allowing them to increase the efficiency of their pothole repair programmes. They could take this opportunity to deliver the long-term funding that our road networks need. I look forward to the imminent announcement from the Minister.

21:25:00

It is clear that local roads maintenance is an issue that affects every one of us, and that our constituents care about deeply. I am grateful to all hon. Members who have spoken up on behalf of their constituents. I assure them that the Government get it and are determined to do something about it. There were too many contributions for me to mention them all, but my hon. Friend the Member for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard (Alex Mayer) highlighted why it is important that local councils are required to publish reports on their plans. We want people to know if their local council is choosing not to spend the extra funding that we are providing on fixing their cratered, potholed, pimpled roads. I assure her and other members of the Transport Committee that work is already under way on a complete review of the guidance—the code of practice on well-managed highway infrastructure, to give it its full name. I am really pleased that my hon. Friends the Members for Stoke-on-Trent North (David Williams) and for Stoke-on-Trent South (Dr Gardner) highlighted the innovation that has been adopted by Stoke-on-Trent’s Labour council and its highways department—investing in AI to properly understand and monitor its road network and using the Pothole Pro to undertake long-lasting repairs. I am really sorry to hear that Conservative Staffordshire county council is not as responsive to the concerns of my hon. Friends’ constituents who are calling for investment in road safety. As my hon. Friends the Members for Stafford (Leigh Ingham) and for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury) rightly reminded us, Staffordshire residents can do something about that problem by voting Labour on 1 May, as can residents in Derbyshire, Northumberland, Hertfordshire, Lancashire and many other parts of the country. I am grateful to Scottish colleagues for their contributions. It is disappointing to hear that the SNP Government are not acting to tackle the state of Scotland’s roads, as this Government are in England and my Labour colleagues are in Wales. The Scottish people deserve better. My hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) raised the important issue of pavement parking, as did others, and he was right to do so, because it contributes to our broken pavements, which are so unsafe for many elderly and disabled people. The previous Government promised action for almost a decade and did nothing. We plan to respond to the 2020 consultation and set out our policy in this area. When I tell people that I am the roads Minister, I can pretty much guarantee that the first question they will ask is, “What are you doing to fix my street?” It is not surprising that this issue is so often raised with us when we are out and about in our constituencies. The appalling state of our local roads and pavements is all too visible to us every single day. As we have heard time and again in this debate, it is unsafe for pedestrians, cyclists and bikers, it makes motorists’ lives a misery and it is holding back economic growth. The shadow Minister suggested that things were worse in 2006 than under his Government, but according to the RAC pothole index, drivers were nearly 40% more likely to have a pothole-related breakdown in 2024 than they were under the last Labour Government.

Will the Minister give way?

Not right now, as the hon. Gentleman has already had an opportunity to speak on this issue.

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Can you give me some advice? Where the Minister has misquoted me and refuses to give way, what steps can I take to correct the record?

I thank the hon. Member for his point of order. I think that is a matter of debate, and it is now on the record.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. As the Secretary of State said earlier, this Government inherited crumbling roads with local highway authorities struggling to stay on top of an ever-increasing backlog of maintenance. Of course, there are many reasons for that, including the weather and the increasing volume and weight of traffic using our roads, but it is abundantly clear that the funding provided by the previous Government was simply not enough to allow local authorities to deal with the problem. No one knows this better than Karen Shore, our Labour candidate in Runcorn and Helsby, who served for many years as the cabinet member for highways on her local council. As she and we remember, the Tories made promises for 14 years but, in reality, any funding uplifts were short-lived and never fully materialised. It is perhaps not surprising that the Conservative Benches have been so empty during this debate. This Government are determined to ensure that things will be different, and we will do better.

Does the Minister know whether any Reform MPs have constituents with pothole issues? Of course, we would not know because they are not here.

My hon. Friend makes an important point, and people can see for themselves which party is on the side of motorists and road users. We have provided an extra £500 million in the current financial year, on top of the previous Government’s funding baseline and the Network North money for 2024-25. It is a huge increase. For most authorities, it means around 36% or 37% more than last year, and of course it is just the start. As many hon. Members have observed today, a one-off uplift will not fix all the problems—it was never going to. However, through the spending review, we are determined to secure a long-term funding settlement to allow local highway authorities to plan ahead with confidence. Strangely, the only time the previous Government promised long-term funding was nine months before the general election, knowing full well that they had not put any cash aside to pay for it. We are determined to ensure that the extra funding we are providing genuinely leads to extra spending by local authorities, rather than simply allowing them to put less of their own funding into highway maintenance. That is exactly why we are introducing the extra reporting requirements that the Secretary of State set out. The information that councils publish in June will shine a spotlight on this issue in a way that has not happened before. It will allow local people to see for themselves what repairs and resurfacing their council is planning, and how this compares with other local authorities. It will help the Department and the public to understand matters such as which authorities are putting their own funding into the pot, and which are doing the most to prepare their networks for the wetter winters that we are already seeing.

I welcome the announcement on better transparency in how local government is spending money on potholes, but the challenge I have in the Bradford district is that, according to the answer to a freedom of information request, only 4% of highway spending over six years was spent in the Keighley and Ilkley constituency. The vast majority of the highway spending has been spent within Bradford city centre. How will the Government ensure that, across a local authority area, there is fairness in the amount of highway spending allocated across the whole district, rather than just on city centre projects?

This Government believe in devolution. It is for local councils, elected by local people, to decide their own priorities. I know we have spent a lot of time talking about potholes this evening, and despite all the attention they get and the headlines they generate, potholes are only a small part of what local highway authorities are dealing with. Local highway authorities have to look after complex networks of pavements, cycle lanes, bridges, tunnels, lighting columns, drainage channels, culverts, retaining walls and much else besides. Potholes are just the tip of a very large iceberg, but they are the thing that is most visible to road users, whether they are in a car, on a bike, or being jarred while sitting on a bus. Yes, we are asking local authorities to give us their best estimate of the number of potholes they have filled in recent years. We also want them to tell us what they are doing to shift their focus to long-term preventive maintenance, because avoiding potholes forming in the first place is, as the Public Accounts Committee recognised, generally much better value for money than temporarily patching the same pothole again and again once it has become a safety-critical problem. Let me move on to street works and to what we are doing to respond to the complaints that our roads often seem to be dug up again and again by utility companies in an unco-ordinated way. It is the responsibility of the highway authority to co-ordinate any works taking place on its roads. The hon. Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Manuela Perteghella) rightly described the cost of failing to do so for local people and businesses. We are committed to ensuring that the proper policy framework is in place to enable authorities to co-ordinate and plan road and street works effectively. My hon. Friends the Members for Bracknell (Peter Swallow) and for Stafford will be pleased to hear that we have recently announced that we will be doing more to hold utilities to account for disruptive works. We will be doubling fixed penalty notices to increase the level of deterrent they provide and improve compliance. Charges will also be applied at weekends and on bank holidays to reduce congestion and disruption during those times. Lane rental can help highway authorities to reduce the impact of works taking place on the busiest roads at the busiest times. Schemes allow authorities to charge utilities up to £2,500 per day for works on those roads, encouraging companies to work smarter. We know that many more councils are developing lane rental schemes, and we plan to update our guidance to help them develop those schemes. We have announced changes that mean that highway authorities will be required to spend at least 50% of surplus funds raised from lane rental on road maintenance. To conclude, I repeat my thanks to all hon. Members who have contributed to what has been a rich and positive debate. We all want to see an improvement to the state of our local roads, pavements and other parts of our highways networks. I doubt that this will be the last time we discuss potholes, but this Government are determined to give local authorities the tools and resources they need to get on top of the problem. We want local councils to be more transparent about what they are doing with taxpayers’ money, and we want them to follow best practice. We want councils to learn from each other and benchmark each other’s performance, so that the overall standard of delivery is driven up. Getting on top of the backlog in local highway maintenance is a high priority for this Government. We recognise that there are tough choices here for councils, but getting more potholes fixed was a manifesto commitment and one we are determined to deliver. We have hit the ground running but I know that there is a lot more still to do. I will say more in a few months’ time about the longer term funding outlook for all local authorities. We look forward to working with councils over the months ahead to ensure that our funding uplift is making a real difference to all our constituents. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered road maintenance.