The Department for Transport has published its latest road conditions statistics for England, revealing more roads in England required maintenance.
Published as the Government announces a record £1.6bn investment to fill potholes and repair roads across England for 2025/26, the report shows that while the percentage of ‘red’ road has remained at 4% since 2020 for local A-roads, the percentage of ‘amber’ roads has increased. Since 2020, the percentage of ‘amber’ roads has increased from 24% to 27% and the percentage of ‘green’ roads has decreased from 73% to 68%.
In 2024, 4.7% of the local ‘A’ road network and 2.5% of the minor road network (‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘U’ roads) received maintenance treatment. The proportion of the network receiving maintenance treatment has been falling over the last 10 years .
RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “While the percentage of A-roads that are deemed to be in the worst ‘red’ condition doesn’t appear to have got any worse, it’s concerning to see that more roads that were in reasonable ‘green’ condition have now deteriorated to ‘amber’ status.
“Unfortunately, this is also the trend with B and C roads with 3% more of these now being categorised as ‘amber’ which means approximately 1,500 miles of road around the country are now significantly worse than they were.
“Drivers’ surveyed for this year’s RAC Report on Motoring listed the poor state of local roads as their number one motoring issue of concern. We badly need to end the decline in the condition of our local roads, so we hope the Government’s new approach to highways funding will enable council to plan longer-term maintenance that finally addresses this.
“We’re very encouraged to hear the Government talking about the need for preventative maintenance, such as surface dressing, as we know this is key to improving road surface conditions for the future. This way potholes will be prevented from appearing in the first place.”
