Britain is stuck in a £26 billion pothole

For years, the conversation around our roads has focused on temporary patches and short-term fixes. The reality is that we’re witnessing the potential decline of one of the UK's most valuable assets.

To understand the scale of the crisis, we need to look at the balance sheet. Britain’s road network is valued at roughly £400 billion. It is the primary artery for our economy, moving people, goods and services. However, the cost to bring these roads up to a safe, fit-for-purpose standard is now estimated at £50 billion. The UK Government has only allocated £24 billion.

This £26 billion funding gap is a fundamental barrier to fixing our roads. When the budget covers less than half of the required maintenance, local authorities are forced into a reactive cycle - chasing potholes after they appear rather than preventing them from forming in the first place. This is the most expensive and least effective way to manage our roads.

These challenges are worsened by problems that our original Victorian and post-war engineers couldn't account for: the climate. Climate change is no longer a future threat; it is actively disrupting our road surfaces. We are seeing a cycle of extreme weather that is accelerating the rate of deterioration. Intense summer heat softens the binders in the tarmac, and increasingly frequent, heavy rainfall seeps into the smallest cracks. When the winter freeze-thaw hits, that trapped water expands, blowing the road surface apart. Without a change in policy, we are effectively trying to maintain a 20th-century road network against 21st-century weather.

Fixing this takes more than just a larger chequebook; it requires a total overhaul of how we plan and fund road infrastructure. For too long, road funding has been characterised by stop-start cycles. Local councils often receive short-term, ring-fenced grants that must be spent within a single financial year. This encourages shovel-ready projects - the quick wins and the cosmetic patches - rather than shovel-worthy projects that build long-term resilience.

True planning reform must move toward multi-year funding settlements. This would give authorities across the UK the financial certainty to invest in large-scale preventative maintenance and long-term drainage improvements. We need a national strategy that prioritises asset management over political cycles, ensuring that road resilience is treated with the same importance as energy or digital connectivity.

However, policy reform must also embrace the tools of the modern age to drive down costs. This is where digital twins and advanced technology become essential. A digital twin is a dynamic, virtual representation of the physical road network. By using sensors, high-definition mapping, and data analytics, we can monitor the health of our infrastructure in real-time. Instead of waiting for a road to fail, engineers can use these digital models to predict exactly where failures will occur and intervene before the damage becomes costly. Moving from reactive repair to predictive maintenance would significantly reduce budget requirements by ensuring every pound is spent with surgical precision.

The UK cannot afford a crumbling road network. It hinders productivity, increases vehicle repair costs for families, and ultimately costs the taxpayer more in the long run through emergency repairs. We have the data, the technology, and the engineering expertise to fix this. What we lack is a policy framework that provides the long-term vision to meet it. It is time to stop papering over the cracks and start building roads that can withstand the future.

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Mark Coates is Vice President of Infrastructure Policy Advancement at Bentley Systems.

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