Marsh Street in Bristol's historic centre is a modest road with an office block at one end, a Thai restaurant at the other, and an almighty mess in between. Over its 200-metre length, the tarmac is pockmarked with dozens of cracks, patches, divots, and holes. In some spots, multiple layers of road structure are exposed beneath the worn surface. For bus and car passengers, the ride is bouncy; for cyclists, it is an assault course.
Gary Gainey, a Bristol bus driver, knows the bumpiest bits well. Steering heavy vehicles over hollows and humps can damage drivers' backs and wrists, he says. Colleagues share intelligence when a particularly bad crater appears. Buses cannot swerve to avoid holes, he notes with a grin: "The oncoming traffic doesn't really like that."
The Scale of the Problem
Exactly how many potholes exist depends on who is counting, but the RAC estimates there are a million in UK residential, city centre, and rural roads—six per mile. Compensation claims against local authorities for pothole damage rose 90% in the three years to 2024. In February 2025, three times more drivers cited potholes as the cause of breakdowns than a year earlier.
A YouGov poll before the recent council elections found that voters cared more about potholes, congestion, and road maintenance locally than about the cost of living, the NHS, or immigration. Crumbling roads symbolise a society that feels worse than it used to. Yet New York's mayor fixed 100,000 potholes in his first 100 days. Why can't Britain solve its problem?
Political Promises vs. Reality
Politicians are not blind to the issue. Most roads outside motorways and A-roads are maintained by councils, funded by a mix of local and national cash. The government announced an extra £500m for highway maintenance, tied to demands that councils publish pothole-filling numbers or lose funding. The Conservatives declared a "national mission" for a £112m "pothole patrol." Reform UK touted the JCB PotHole Pro after a £200,000 donation from JCB. The Liberal Democrats call it a "pothole pandemic." In Scotland, the SNP promised a £350m "better surfaces fund."
To those fixing the problem, sweeping promises do not help. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander got her Mini Cooper stuck in an Oxfordshire "moon-crater" and had to be towed.
Funding Shortfalls
Central to the issue are councils' shrivelled post-austerity budgets and rising demands from special needs education and social care. Bristol City Council approved £10.3m over five years for road maintenance, part of a £21m investment. Shaun Taylor, head of highways, says this doubles DfT funding for the year but is insufficient. He has £3m to spend this year but needs £9m to prevent potholes forming. Potholes are a symptom of failing roads; fixing the underlying issue costs more short-term but pays for itself four times over within a decade, according to DfT figures. "It's like a windowsill," Taylor says. "If you paint and look after it, it lasts a lifetime. If you ignore it, it cracks and rots."
Local authorities in England and Wales say dealing with the repair backlog would cost £18.6bn, despite filling 1.9m holes last year—one every 17 seconds. Phill Wheat, professor of transport econometrics at Leeds University, says: "Very constrained funding is fundamentally the problem. We don't have enough money to do anything other than keep the network roughly safe, rather than fixing underlying problems."
Climate and Other Factors
The climate emergency worsens the challenge, with colder, wetter winters. Water is the biggest cause of potholes, though heavier vehicles and increased traffic contribute. Ed Plowden, a Green councillor and chair of Bristol's transport policy committee, says: "We've had a really bad winter with lots of rain. If Britain gets wetter, the struggle to keep on top of potholes will become even harder."
Rebecca McKee of the Institute for Government argues that Westminster funding tied to narrow targets can limit councils' ability to invest in long-term solutions. "Councils want to spend on interconnected things, but they can't if funding must be spent just on potholes in a specific way." Similarly, year-by-year funding prevents long-term fixes. Taylor says: "I love the extra money, but sometimes they say spend it by a certain point—when this is the time I want to spend it, ahead of winter. Flexibility would help us spend more wisely."
Wheat warns of a spiral: "In five or 10 years, underlying assets will worsen, defects will proliferate, and there will be even less money for proper maintenance. The status quo will only go one way unless funding changes." Plowden agrees: "Over 30 years, we face a slow, managed decline of our network on current funding. We cannot maintain it to the standard we want."
The DfT says: "For the first time, our record funding to end the pothole plague incentivises preventative work. We're giving councils £7.3bn of long-term multi-year funding so they can plan ahead." Of this, £2.1bn is conditional on effective repair and prevention plans. The DfT reports 15% more pothole prevention works in 2025 compared to 2024.
Bristol City Council spent almost £1m fixing potholes earlier this year and is starting a programme to upgrade 159 roads to limit water and UV damage. In July, Marsh Street will be stripped back and completely resurfaced—good news for cyclists, motorists, and bus drivers.
