Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in Cambridge on a pothole mission – but Cambridgeshire council leader is sceptical

Sir Keir Starmer has said there needs to be “accountability” in the system of fixing potholes on a visit to Cambridge, as figures show compensation claims have more than doubled in the past three years.

It comes as the Prime Minister told councils to prove they are tackling the issue or face having the cash to fix them withheld.

He said that councils need to “get on with the job” of fixing potholes as he announced an additional £4.8bn of funding to carry out work on motorways and major A-roads – and deliver “pivotal” projects including the A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet scheme.

However, Cllr Lucy Nethsingha, leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, told the BBC the money was “nowhere near the amount that is needed”. She said in order to fix the roads in Cambridgeshire alone, the council had a shortfall of £410m while the money the government was “re-announcing” for the whole of England was £500m.

The council said it had 2,629 potholes needing repair in January.

It has planned to spend £59million on the county’s roads, pathways, bridges and rights of way over the coming year, as reported by the Cambridge Independent last week.

An investigation by Accident Claims Advice, published this month, found the council has seen a staggering rise in the number of compensation claims lodged against it for damage caused by potholes in the last three years.

The authority says it has spent more than £8.3m on pothole repairs as well as forking out a further £389,000 in compensation claims over the past three years. Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act found the council had 4,214 legal claims lodged against it regarding potholes in the last three years with the figure increasing from 616 claims in 2022 to 1,357 last year. In 2024, the council settled a record number of cases and paid out £106,357 in compensation for 407 pothole claims.

Local authorities will start to get their share of £1.6 billion in highway maintenance funding confirmed last year, up £500m from the previous year, in mid-April.

But from Monday, they will be required to publish annual progress reports or face having funding withheld.

It comes as figures from the RAC show drivers encounter an average of six potholes per mile in England and Wales, and pothole damage to cars costs an average £600 to fix. According to the AA, fixing potholes is a priority for 96 per cent of drivers.

On the visit to Halfords Autocentre Cambridge, the Prime Minister spoke to two members of the public who have been affected by pothole damage, one of whom told him that budgets for fixing the holes are “the wrong way around”.

Sir Keir responded: “The first thing we need to do is to get a bit of accountability into it, to know which councils are doing what and where – how many times are they filling in holes – so we can get a bit of data on that, which we haven’t got.”

He said the announcement would “incentivise” councils to “get on and do it”.

On the same visit, alongside transport secretary Heidi Alexander, the Prime Minister was introduced to mechanics and apprentices who work on cars that have been damaged by potholes.

Being shown damage to tyres caused by potholes, he said: “It’s really irritating, if you’re doing the school run or you’re using your car or your van for work.”

To ensure councils are taking action, they must publish reports on their websites by 30 June, detailing how much they are spending, how many potholes they have filled, what percentage of their roads are in what condition, and how they are minimising street works disruption.

They will also be required to show how they are spending more on long-term preventative maintenance programmes and that they have robust plans for the wetter winters the country is experiencing.

By the end of October, councils must show they are ensuring communities have their say on what work they should be doing, and where. The public can also help battle back against pothole-ridden roads by reporting them to their local council, via a dedicated online government portal.

Ms Alexander added: “After years of neglect, we’re unblocking the East of England’s roads – fixing the plague of potholes, building vital roads and ensuring every penny is delivering results for the taxpayer.

“The public deserves to know how their councils are improving their local roads, which is why they will have to show progress or risk losing 25 per cent of their £500m funding boost.”

However, the Local Government Association (LGA) has said that the cost of the local road repairs backlog is close to £17bn, and called on the government to give financial certainty to councils.

Cllr Adam Hug, the LGA’s transport spokesperson, said: “Councils already spend more than they receive from central government on tackling potholes and repairing our roads.

“However, it’s in everyone’s interests to ensure that public money is well spent.

“This includes the government playing its full part by using the spending review to ensure that councils receive sufficient, long-term funding certainty, so they can focus their efforts on much more cost-effective, preventative measures rather than reactively fixing potholes, which is more expensive.”

Ms Alexander has said that the government wants to make sure councils are not “frittering money away on ineffective road repairs”.