In addition, the Transport Secretary promised to deliver for drivers with wider plans to tackle the soaring cost of car insurance, accelerate the roll out of electric vehicle charge points, and deliver a new road safety strategy to reduce tragic road deaths and injuries. 

Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh, said: 

"For too long, this country has suffered from a pothole plague. Our roads have become a constant and visible reminder of the decline in our country’s infrastructure, which stunts economic growth." 

"From drivers to bikers to cyclists, everyone who uses our roads deserves a safe and pleasant journey. That’s why I’ve pledged to support local authorities to fix up to one million more potholes per year."

Daniel Isichei, Director of Membership, Marketing & Communications, CIHT said:

“Fixing potholes is the tip of the iceberg and there needs to be consistent investment by the UK Government in the maintenance of our existing highways and infrastructure. Incrementally adapting our infrastructure and proactively carrying out maintenance is essential to achieve extreme weather resilience and meet our decarbonisation goals.”

CIHT believes the UK Government should provide clear, long-term aims on how we will use the transport network and support this with long-term transport investments (of at least 10–20 years).

As a minimum this should include a five-year commitment to funding local roads maintenance and renewal (a local roads investment strategy). This will enable local highway authorities to secure longer-term procurement, address decarbonisation, improve maintenance interventions and make transport networks more resilient.

In support of this, CIHT is also calling for:

• The making of a statutory requirement for all transport asset owners to carry out transport resilience assessments. This will help to identify vulnerabilities in the network, prioritise remedial action and show who should be responsible.
• And the establishment of a dedicated fund to support projects to mitigate such vulnerable areas.

CIHT will be shortly releasing a report looking at how we can potentially mitigate the impact of extreme weather events in the highways sector.

For more information, please contact e: communications@ciht.org.uk