The Department for Transport (DfT) has unveiled £220m of 'incentive funding' allocations to local highways authorities following the publication of maintenance transparency reports this year.

The new transparency reports, which local authorities must submit to access the incentive cash for highways maintenance, show that local authorities have spent a record amount on road upkeep, with councils spending a total of £4.9bn, over £800m more than two years ago.

When dealing with reactive pothole repairs – excluding those repaired due to planned maintenance – the majority (77%) of all potholes have been filled using permanent repairs, with 23% repaired temporarily.

Resurfacing has increased 10% from last year, with nearly 7,000 miles of road resurfacing undertaken this year, and preventative maintenance has also increased - 94% of councils are now set to complete preventative maintenance this year, up from 76% taking a proactive approach last year.

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said: ‘For too long potholes have been a source of national embarrassment, forcing hard-working people to fork out for repairs and posing a danger to all road users. But today's figures show that we are starting to turn a corner. While we know there is much more to do, our record funding, combined with tough new rules holding councils to account, mean that drivers are making smoother journeys while giving people roads they can rely on.'

It appears that 152 of 153 councils have published their highways maintenance transparency reports, allowing them to receive this initial tranche of incentive funding for 2026/2027 quarter 3, with one authority appearing to have missed out. The DfT has been approached for clarification as to whether that authority will lose 100% of its incentive cash as previously suggested.

The DfT said: 'Further funding will be released later in the year only if councils reach their performance targets, and can be withheld if they fail to reach them as part of the government's efforts to hold councils to account.'

Under the plans set out by DfT earlier this year, the 2026 to 2027 incentive fund requirements include:

  • Publication of a highways maintenance transparency report for 2026/2027 (originally advertised as worth 50% of incentive cash, although this week DfT said it was worth 'at least 25%') 
  • Spending at least the value of DfT's highways maintenance funding on highways maintenance (demonstrated within transparency report for 2026/2027, worth 25% of incentive cash)
  • Publication of an updated highways asset management policy and strategy (within transparency report for 2026/2027, worth 12.5% of incentive cash)
  • Demonstration of continued professional learning (email to DfT by 30 November, worth 12.5% of incentive cash). 

The DfT has stated that it plans to publish its version of the final disaggregated data in ‘early 2027' alongside the local road maintenance ratings, following on from the red/amber/green (RAG) ratings published in January of this year.