Pothole compensation claims double, but councils refuse to pay out

The number of pothole-related compensation claims submitted to councils has more than doubled in the past year, with local authorities refusing to pay out on the vast majority of occasions, citing their ignorance as the main reason. The figures once again highlight not only the poor state of Britain’s roads, but also the lack of understanding of how dire things have become.

A Freedom of Information request by the RAC to 21 councils across Britain found that between 2022 and 2023, the number of pothole-related compensation claims submitted by drivers to local councils grew by almost one and a half times, from 8,327 to 20,432.

Of the 18 councils that responded, Surrey County Council saw the biggest leap in claims, increasing by well over 400 per cent from 734 in 2022 to 3,418 in 2023. This equates to one claim every mile of road under the authority’s jurisdiction, with other county councils such as Essex, Hampshire and Hertfordshire reporting as many as one claim every two miles. The RAC tells us that on average across the country, there’s one claim every 10 miles.

Simon Williams, the RAC’s head of policy, called the findings a “stark reminder that the ongoing poor condition of many of the UK’s local roads is burning holes in the budgets of both local authorities and drivers”. 

On average, drivers receive compensation of just £260 per claim, which the RAC says is 43 per cent less than the mean cost of pothole damage repair bills (£460). Adding insult to injury is the fact that 13 of the 18 councils that responded to the RAC admitted to having spent more than £166,000 of public money in 2023 defending against pothole claims from drivers.

Williams remarked that, "while some councils appeared to prioritise paying legal fees over settling pothole claims, the cost in time and money of defending claims appears to far outweigh the expense of reimbursing drivers for the damage done to their vehicle in the first place.”

All of this comes after a damning report by the National Audit Office, which accused the Department for Transport of “not hav[ing] a good enough understanding of the condition of local roads”.

Seemingly in response to this, Chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged in the Autumn Budget an additional £500million towards road maintenance, on top of the original £8.3billion pledged by the previous government, sourced by redirected funds from the cancelled Phase 2 of the HS2 project.

The RAC said it’s “pleased” by the injection of extra cash, but said it’s “vital that this money is used by councils not to merely fill potholes, but also to carry out preventative maintenance – through surface dressing roads at regular intervals to stop roads falling apart in the first place. Roads that are beyond reasonable repair should be resurfaced.”