The Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA) has produced a guidance note on how to tackle the pothole crisis, with four key recommendations on maintenance and asset management principles.

The key recommendations are:

  • Investing in essential highway drainage maintenance activities to remove water from the highway, which can otherwise result in water penetrating the road surface, leading to potholes.
  • Investing in timely and cost-effective preventative maintenance treatments to seal roads and prevent water ingress, extending road life and preventing potholes
  • Permanent patch repair solutions (even if this is a follow-up to temporary safety repairs), embracing technologies to identify priority areas, supporting a longer-term, cost-effective and planned approach
  • Cold recycling end of life, crumbling, heavily potholed roads, using materials already bought and paid for, to form the construction of the replacement road.

The RSTA released the guidance note to coincide with National Pothole Day and teamed up with the RAC to make the case for increasing the percentage of the network treated with surface treatments.

As demonstrated below, increases in percentages of network treated with surface treatments could make a huge difference on the road network and change ratings from red to amber, or amber to green, much quicker.

The RAC reported last year that 3% of English local authority roads received any form of road maintenance in 2023 (based on £1.1bn capital maintenance funding).

'Adopting a 50/50 split for example, of preventive treatments and recycling/end of life resurfacing, (assuming 75% investment of the £1.6bn funding for 2026/27 going into road maintenance), could see up to 7% of roads treated in 2026/27, rising to 9% by 2029/30 (when Government maintenance funding rises to £2.134billion),' the RSTA and RAC said in a joint media statement.

Personal statements

Mike Hansford, chief executive of the RSTA, said: 'At the start of my highway maintenance career, I recall experienced engineers discussing core road maintenance principles of (1) maintaining highway drainage to remove water from the highway, and (2) sealing roads early to stop the damaging effects of water ingress. Yet industry data suggests a historic departure from preventative treatments and reduced cyclic drainage maintenance activity, so it's important we get back to these core maintenance principles.

'Challenging budgets (especially revenue funding) in some cases have forced short-term policy decisions to save money, which have subsequently impacted negatively on highway asset condition and performance, even resulting in increased reactive interventions, therefore have cost more in the longer term.

'I have seen the effects of multiple temporary and expensive safety repairs to the same defective area, when a single planned, permanent repair would cost only a third of that cost and been better perceived by the public. Permanent patch repairs typically will last a minimum of 5-6 years, though will likely be guaranteed for 12-18 months by which time any poor reinstatements will likely start to fail.'

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: 'Fixing potholes as permanently as possible is vital as there's nothing drivers find more incensing than watching them reappear after a few months simply because they weren't repaired to a high enough standard.

'But it's important not to lose sight of the bigger picture, which is that potholes are symptomatic of a lack of preventative maintenance. Roads that haven't been surfaced dressed will start to break down as water gets into cracks, freezes and expands in the winter, creating more potholes than daffodils in the spring.

'The route to smoother driving surfaces is simple: ensure water can always drain off the roads, fix potholes as permanently as possible, seal roads against water ingress through preventative maintenance, and resurface roads that have gone beyond the point of no return.'

Key industry survey, the 2025 ALARM report found that the backlog of carriageway repairs in England and Wales has reached almost £17bn – the highest figure in 30 years of reporting.

In 2026, the RSTA will provide a number of free (to local highway authorities) events which present learning opportunities. Starting with its annual conference on 16 April, which will focus on celebrating and sharing good practice. Register interest in attending as guests of the RSTA by emailing enquiries@rsta-uk.org.