Road Maintenance

Scott Arthur Excerpts

Monday 7th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[John Lamont]

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.

[Dr Scott Arthur (Edinburgh South West) (Lab)]

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?

[John Lamont]

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.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Scott Arthur (Edinburgh South West) (Lab)]

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.