Road Maintenance

Terry Jermy Excerpts

Monday 7th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Terry Jermy (South West Norfolk) (Lab)]

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.