Government doubles funding for pothole repairs

Councils have been told how they will benefit from the doubling of funding available for repairing potholes as announced in the Budget.

 Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has written to all English local highway authorities to inform them of their share of £200m.

 Last month the Department for Transport announced that it was making available £100m as an exceptional payment to help with much needed road repairs following the severe weather at the end of last year. This extra funding was made possible because of savings the Department made earlier in the financial year.

 However, further savings have now been identified and so more money has been made available for this vital programme.

 Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said:

 “Potholes are a menace to all road users and I want councils to make fixing them a priority.

 “That is why, when more funding became available, I agreed with the Chancellor that we would double the amount of money we are providing for repairs to be carried out.

 “This represents a significant investment in road maintenance at a time of severe fiscal restraint, demonstrating the Government’s commitment to maintain our infrastructure to support motorists and businesses.”

 The funding is in addition to the £831 million already provided to councils for road maintenance this year and the £3 billion the Government has committed over the next four years.

 All 153 local highway authorities in England, including those in London, will receive a share of the funding. To ensure the money can be distributed over the next few days, the funds will be automatically distributed to English local authorities according to the formula used to distribute road maintenance funding rather than councils needing to apply for it.

 To promote greater transparency and accountability, all local highway authorities have agreed to publish information on their website by 30 September 2011 showing where this extra money has been spent.

 The money will be allocated as follows;

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