Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Hepburn Excerpts

Monday 28th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Stephen Hepburn (Jarrow) (Lab)]

7. What recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Transport on funding for local authorities to reduce the number of potholes.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Jake Berry)]

Ongoing discussions before the autumn Budget led to the Government announcing £420 million of additional funding for highways authorities to fill potholes and carry out other works. The Conservatives: the party of filling the many potholes, not the few.

[Mr Hepburn]

The national problem of potholes has been caused by this Government and their 50% cut to local government funding for tackling it. While the new money is welcome, it is a drop in the ocean. North-east councils alone need £1 billion to sort out their pothole problem. Will the Minister press the Chancellor for more?

[Jake Berry]

Cycling UK estimates that it costs an average of £53 to fill a pothole, so the money announced at the last Budget in the north-east alone is enough to fill over 400,000 potholes. Rather than complaining about it, perhaps it is time those north-east councils got on with it.