Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the amount that local authorities have spent on repairing potholes in (a) Suffolk and (b) Suffolk Coastal constituency in the latest period for which data is available.

In 2023/24, Suffolk County Council received £35 million of capital funding from the Department for Transport, an increase of 30% compared to the previous financial year, with much of the additional funding made possible by the decision to reallocate funding from the HS2 programme. The Department asked all local highway authorities to publish a plan on how they intend to spend the additional funding being provided, and Suffolk County Council’s plan is available on its website.

Under the 1980 Highway Act, it is the responsibility of the local highway authority, in this case Suffolk County Council, to maintain and manage its highway network. The Department for Transport allocates capital funding to local highways authorities to enable them to maintain their highway networks, but decisions on how much of this, and how much of their other income, is spent mending potholes as opposed to maintaining other highway assets are entirely matters for them.