Sir Keir Starmer has promised to clamp down on local authorities and force them to prove they are tackling potholes or lose the cash to fix them.
Ministers “want to get our sleeves rolled up” and fix potholes for good, the prime minister said on Monday, as he announced an additional £4.8bn of funding to carry out work on motorways and major A-roads.
Local authorities will start to get their share of £1.6bn in highway maintenance funding confirmed last year, up £500 million from the previous year, in mid-April.
But from Monday, they will be required to publish annual progress reports or face having funding withheld.
“It gives local accountability so we can see who’s doing the most and where they’re doing it”, the prime minister told BBC 5 Live.
“We’ll start to measure what works better and make sure we’re driving best practice, because… the last thing you want to do is to fill a pothole, then six weeks later, it rains and you’re back with the same problem.
“This gives a real line of accountability, but, in a sense, it’s the government just wanting to get our sleeves rolled up and say we know what the problem is, we know how much it costs if you hit one, and we need a mechanism to hold local authorities to account.”
He added: “There will be some people hitting a pothole this morning, and then they are picking up an average £600 bill to their car or their van.
“That isn’t boring, that is really irritating. We’ve got far too many of them, and this is about getting that job done.”
Councils will have to detail how much they spend and how many potholes they have filled in reports published on their websites by June 30.
The reports will also have to detail what percentage of roads are in what condition, show their spending on pothole prevention and outline plans looking ahead to wetter winters that make potholes worse.
They must show by the end of October that their communities are able to have their say on where work is needed.
The £4.8bn funding for National Highways will go to projects already under way, including the A428 Black Cat scheme in Cambridgeshire, as well as to starting improvements to the A47 around Norwich and M3 J9 scheme in Hampshire.
But the Local Government Association estimated that the cost of the local road repairs backlog is nearly £17bn.
“The broken roads we inherited are not only risking lives but also cost working families, drivers and businesses hundreds – if not thousands of pounds – in avoidable vehicle repairs,” Sir Keir said.
“Fixing the basic infrastructure this country relies on is central to delivering national renewal, improving living standards and securing Britain’s future through our Plan for Change.”
But the Conservatives said Labour is “steering Britain into a ditch” and want credit for “handing councils a pothole sticking plaster”.
“Labour like to talk a big game on fixing roads but they are more interested in chasing headlines than laying tarmac,” Gareth Bacon, shadow transport secretary, said.
“Meanwhile, it is Conservative councils that are actually getting on with the job. Last year, Conservative-run councils repaired five times more road miles on average than Labour-run councils.
“Labour are running on empty. They’ve got no plan for motorists, no grip on the problem, and no credibility. Voters shouldn’t be fooled – Labour aren’t fixing the roads, they’re steering Britain into a ditch.”
