Motorists are paying more than £500 million every year to repair damage to vehicles caused by the terrible state of the nation’s roads.
Potholes are responsible for damaging car suspension systems and even buckling wheels.
But the problem is set to grow worse with the switch away from petrol and diesel, because electric lorries are heavier than existing vehicles. MPs have branded Britain’s road network a “national embarrassment” and demanded the Department for Transport tackle a £15 billion repair backlog.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Chair of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, said: “As well as harming the prospects for our economy and communities’ own social wellbeing, highways riddled with potholes pose an increasing safety threat to road users.”
The Committee criticised the Department for Transport, saying it had failed to gather data on the state of local roads or to give local councils enough help repairing potholes.
Breakdown organisation the AA said the problem was growing. It said in evidence to MPs: “In 2023, our patrols attended more than 631,000 pothole related breakdowns, a five-year high. While some breakdowns require small repairs such as puncture repairs, the scale of damage to vehicles caused by potholes has grown.
“Our patrols are now regularly attending pothole-related incidents which include damaged suspension arms, steering alignment issues and buckled wheels. We estimate that last year the cumulative cost to drivers to repair damaged vehicles because of potholes was approximately half a billion pounds.”
Some roads and bridges may be unable to cope with the weight of electric buses and lorries, leading to concern that lorries will be required to carry fewer goods, the Committee warned.
And it said: “We asked the Department why its data presented a different picture of local road conditions compared to the worsening conditions that independent analysis and user experience were showing. The Department acknowledged that its data is not good enough.”
The Government this week announced plans to use artificial intelligence to tackle potholes. It is to test an AI tool that can predict potholes before they form, so roads can be repaired earlier before they cause expensive damage to vehicles.
The Government says it is spending a record £1.6 billion boost on fixing the nation’s roads.
Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood, said: “Potholes are a clear sign of decline in our infrastructure and for too long roads like those in Derbyshire have been left in a state that endangers and costs road users.
“It’s time for change and we are investing £1.6 billion to fix up to 7 million more potholes across England this year.”
