Kemi Badenoch has launched a £112.5million National Pothole Patrol plan – as she claims Britain’s roads have reached ‘breaking point’ under Labour.
The Conservative opposition leader was pictured smoothing out the edges today in the West Midlands as part of her campaign trail for the local elections.
According to the Tories, the scheme – incorporating hundreds of modern, specialist road-repair machines – would be financed through savings made in the party’s £47bn savings plan.
It comes just months after the President of the AA, Edmund King, said the UK was ‘nowhere close to getting out of this rut’.
The project would also introduce a single national reporting platform – ending the current ‘patchwork approach’.
Ms Badenoch said: ‘Labour are waging a war on drivers with the first hike in fuel duty in 15 years and their inaction on potholes.’
Richard Holden MP, Shadow Transport Secretary, added: ‘Drivers are in despair as roads across the country crumble.
‘Labour have lumped cost after cost onto drivers – the fuel duty rise, pay per mile, or new parking taxes – yet people see no improvement in the roads they rely on every day.’
The Conservative opposition leader was pictured smoothing out the roads today in the West Midlands as part of her campaign trail for the local elections
Kemi Badenoch waves from the driving seat of a construction vehicle during a visit to Knowle football club in the West Midlands
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch (centre), and shadow transport secretary Richard Holden (right) are pictured
The Labour Party told the Daily Mail the government is delivering its ‘biggest-ever investment in road maintenance’.
A spokesman insisted road maintenance had not been given the ‘funding needed’ under the Conservatives.
The estimated cost to repair roads in England and Wales has increased 46 per cent in a decade, rising from £11.5bn in 2016 to almost £17bn in 2025, according to the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), the industry body that oversees road surfacing.
Last month the AIA said an estimated £18.6billion would be required to fix all the potholes on local roads in England and Wales.
The group found that just 51 per cent of the local road network maintained by local councils were reported by those authorities as being in good condition.
Chairman David Giles said: ‘I think all road users would agree that the condition of our local roads has become a national disgrace.’
Highway maintenance budgets in England and Wales for 2025-26 increased by around 17 per cent to an average £30.5million per town hall after Labour gave them a £1.6bn funding boost.
But town halls say more than this was needed for them to maintain the local roads network to their target conditions.
According to the Tories, the scheme – incorporating hundreds of modern, specialist road-repair machines – would be financed through savings made in the party’s £47bn savings plan
The backlog of potholes has grown so large across England and Wales that it would cost nearly £19bn to fix them all, the Asphalt Industry Alliance says
AIA chairman David Giles told the Daily Mail drivers’ anger amid rocketing pump prices and motoring taxes was also reaching breaking point.
He said: ‘We’ve got workers who were attacked every day either verbally or even physically. People who are actually out there repairing the roads get shouted at, spat at and even hit.’
Mr Giles said drivers had ‘a right’ to expect smooth and well-maintained roads because they were a ‘national service’ and town halls had a legal duty to ensure they were safe to travel on.
But he added Britain had ‘heavily trafficked’ roads compared to other countries and that less than one per cent of the network’s asset value of £550billion was being spent by councils on maintaining them.
This ‘dramatic underspend’ over several years is less than half the two per cent recommendation of the OECD group of countries, he said, adding that cash-strapped councils tend to focus on ‘patching’ up roads by filling potholes rather than completely resurfacing roads as this is cheaper.
