Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the value for money of patching potholes rather than providing a permanent fix.

The department published a review into the value for money of investment in local highways maintenance, which also set out the cost benefits of proactive and preventative maintenance. The review is available online, at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/economic-appraisal-for-investing-in-local-highways-maintenance

This year, the Government made available an additional £500 million for local highway authorities to maintain their highway network, bringing the total to a record investment of £1.6 billion. 25% of the additional funding is contingent upon local highway authorities complying with certain criteria aimed at driving best practice and continual improvement in highways maintenance. This includes local highway authorities having to demonstrate to Government how much they are spending on highways maintenance, incl. the balance of spend between preventative and reactive maintenance. In this context, the department has written to all local highway authorities to emphasise that when determining the balance between preventative and reactive maintenance, authorities should adopt the principle that prevention is better than cure, as also set out in the Code of Practice for well-managed highway infrastructure, available online, at: https://www.ciht.org.uk/ukrlg-home/code-of-practice/.