The Welsh Government has announced a funding boost for its strategic road network next year and indicated that there will also be new money for local authority roads.
Officials said there would be an 'extra £25m' in the new financial year to renew Wales’ major roads and prevent around 30,000 road defects and potholes, with an extra 100km of the strategic road network resurfaced.
The Welsh Government has spent more than £81m since 2021 on resurfacing around 321km of roads on the trunk network across Wales, bringing the total for the Senedd term to £118m.
A spokesperson confirmed that the total expected spend on improving road conditions in 2025/6 will be ‘more than £37m’, which compares to an annual average spend of just over £20m in the previous four years.
Ken Skates, cabinet secretary for Transport and North Wales said: ‘It is crucial that we fix our roads.
‘I’m delighted to be announcing a further £25m of funding to help support a comprehensive refurbishment programme to improve the future resilience of our strategic roads network and prevent potholes.
‘We are already working hard to fill potholes and renew, as fast as possible, key sections of our road network, but this additional funding will help to accelerate this work.’
Officials said Mr Skates has also pledged to announce details of new financial support for councils to fix more local roads, with details of the scale of support due to be revealed in the coming weeks and will help fix potholes across Wales.
The Welsh Local Government Settlement in December included provisional local transport grants to councils totalling £103m next year, compared to £102.9m this year, which would be a real-terms cut.
