The UK Government has revealed details of a £250 million fund to repair potholes across England.

Over 100 councils are due to receive £50m of funding this year to help repair around 943,000 potholes on local roads.

The £250m Pothole Action Fund will allocate £50m per year to local authorities and aims to fix over four million potholes by 2020/21.

Overall the government is spending £6.1 billion on local highways maintenance until 2021.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, said: "I know how important well-maintained roads are to people across the country. Almost every journey starts and ends on a local road, so the government is giving councils £250 million specifically to tackle the blight of potholes in their area.


"This is just one part of our unprecedented investment in local road maintenance over the next 5 years. We are giving a record £6 billion to local authorities in England that will improve journeys across the regions."

However, Cllr Martin Martin Tett, Local Government Association Transport spokesman, said while the annual £50m boost is promising, councils need "more than 230 times" that amount to cover the £11.8bn cost to repair roads.

"The money announced today will help those councils receiving it to tackle potholes, but it would not even completely cover the cost of the £69 million faced by the average authority to bring its roads up to a reasonable condition," he said.

(LM)