Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions her Department has had with Birmingham City Council on preventative maintenance regarding potholes.

It is the Council’s responsibility to manage its local highways including with respects to preventive maintenance and repairing potholes.

However, the Government is committed to working with the Council to achieve a smooth transition away from its PFI arrangements for its local highways. As part of this, the Department has engaged the Council on its future plans for maintaining its local highways.

More widely, the Department has published a new rating system for every highway authority in England, where they each receive a red, amber or green rating based on the condition of their roads, how much they are spending to maintain it, and whether they do so using best practice, including by adopting more preventative maintenance. The ratings, which will be updated periodically, provide an incentive for councils to adopt more preventative maintenance, and enable the Department to provide targeted support to authorities to help them adopt best practice.