The number of vehicle breakdowns over the last 12 months has seen a spike of nine per cent as a result of the roads strewn with potholes around the UK.
New data has found that there were 27,205 callouts to the RAC breakdown service because of inadequate road surfaces.
This is a dramatic rise compared to the 24,906 callouts between March 2022 and March 2023, something which experts have been keen to highlight.
Despite massive investment from the Government to the Potholes Fund, many are still concerned about the state of roads and the backlog of improvements that need to be made to the UK's highway network.
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Drivers could see an increase in the number of pothole-related breakdowns
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The RAC has identified that potholes have caused drivers to suffer vehicle problems like damaged shock absorbers, broken suspension springs and distorted wheels.
More than £8billion has been set aside for the provision of roads through the Potholes Fund over the next 11 years.
RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “While our data shows pothole damage to vehicles in the first three months of this year is lower than it was in the same period in 2023, it’s important not to lose sight of the bigger picture and the ongoing miserable state of our roads.
“The analysis clearly shows drivers are now twice as likely to suffer a breakdown due to sub-standard road surfaces as they were in 2006.
“While many would rightly say the roads are terrible, we believe they would have been far worse had we not had such a mild winter.
“We feel drivers have dodged the pothole bullet as the lack of widespread sub-zero temperatures has masked the true state of our roads.”
Funding for road repairs was boosted thanks to money originally designated for the extension of the HS2 rail network project which was scrapped last year.
However, the RAC has estimated that it will cost an estimated £16.3billion to repair pothole-laden roads across England and Wales back up to scratch.
Darren Rodwell, transport spokesperson for the Local Government Association, acknowledged the high estimation and how new technology would need to be used to maintain roads across the country in the coming years.
He added: “Greater, long-term and year-on-year consistency of funding for the maintenance of all parts of our highways will help them achieve this.
“The Government should award council highways departments five-yearly funding allocations, to bring them on a par with National Highways, to give more certainty so they can develop resurfacing programmes and other highways improvements, to help them tackle the scourge of potholes.”
Research from the RAC states that there are more than one million potholes on roads across England and Wales, with many warning that the problem could get worse in the near future.
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Breakdowns from potholes are steadily increasing, new data has found
GETTYA Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Local highway authorities are responsible for maintaining their road networks, but we are supporting them with £8.3billion of reallocated HS2 funding over the next 10 years, the biggest ever increase in funding for local road improvements which comes on top of an existing £5.5billion fund.
“Local authorities received the first £150million of this increase within weeks of announcing our additional funding in October, and will receive a further £150million this year to continue improving local roads.”
