Ahead of its annual conference this week, the Local Government Association said that 2p per litre of the current 57.95 pence per litre fuel tax should be allocated to town halls to spend on road maintenance.
Peter Box, chair of the LGA’s economy and transport board, said that this would allow the current backlog of repairs – estimated at £12bn – to be completed within a decade.
‘Tackling this ever-growing national repair bill must be a priority and the government can do this by injecting an extra £1bn a year into roads maintenance, funded by investing 2p a litre from existing fuel duty,’ he said.
He said this should not be applied as an increase in duty, which has been frozen since March 2011, but instead taken from the current revenue to support vital maintenance.
‘Motorists pay billions to the Treasury each year in fuel duty when they fill up their car at the pumps only to then have to drive on roads that are decaying after decades of underfunding. They deserve roads fit for the 21st century.’
He highlighted that government had recently responded to council calls for additional funding by distributing £168m through a Pothole Challenge Fund last month.
However, this was not enough to tackle the backlog properly, leaving councils ‘trapped in an endless cycle of patching up our deteriorating network,’ he added.
‘Councils are fixing around 2 million potholes each year despite funding cuts and multi-million pound compensation costs for pothole damage but are trapped in an endless cycle of patching up our deteriorating network.
‘Long-term and consistent investment and better use of motoring taxation is now desperately needed to allow councils to provide widespread improvement of our roads.’
