38,000 potholes from 2024 ‘still waiting to be fixed’

Local authorities are facing a mounting backlog of repairs, with more than 38,000 potholes waiting to be fixed, according to a public sector insurer.

The Government recently allocated £1.6 billion – an increase of nearly 50% on local road maintenance funding from last year – to help tackle the equivalent of seven million extra potholes in 2025/26. 

However, Zurich Municipal, which obtained the figures through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, is calling for the Government to increase local authority funding to improve the local road network and improve road safety.

According to its own claims data, Zurich Municipal saw a 19% increase in pothole-related claims in 2024, now totalling 10,648. 

The data also suggests that motorists are most likely to hit a defect in the road in the first quarter of the year as the insurer handled more than 5,000 claims for damage to tyres, alloys and car suspensions during this period. 

March is the most common month for motorists to flag pothole prangs to councils. 

In fact, Zurich handled more than 2,300 claims for damage to vehicles during this month last year, a 181% spike.

Analysis of claims data shows that defects in roads caused more than £2.6 million worth of damage to drivers’ cars in 2024, with the average cost being around £600.

Alix Bedford, risk expert at Zurich Municipal, said: “We’ve had a particularly wet start to the year, which is only going to exacerbate the pothole problem that is plaguing the nation. 

“While the additional funding that Government pledged at the end of last year is a step in the right direction, councils need a lot more funding so that they are not just repairing the current cavities in the roads, to make them safer for all users, but also investing in the network so it doesn’t deteriorate as much in the first place.” 

Local authority allocations of the £1.6bn include: £327m for local authorities in North West, North East and Yorkshire and Humber; £372m for local authorities in East Midlands and West Midlands; £244m for local authorities in the East of England; £378m for local authorities in South East and London; and £300 million for local authorities in the South West.