Buckinghamshire Council's Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Transport, Steven Broadbent, sets the record straight about the council's major investment in the local road network.

It was very disappointing to see local pothole repair and road maintenance funding misrepresented in recent local media reports, so I am writing to put the record straight and to ensure the council’s role in investment in our local Highways infrastructure is fully recognised.

The vast majority of funding for pothole repairs and other road maintenance and improvement schemes comes from local council budgets and not from central government.

Recent press reports have suggested central government has provided £20 million for pothole repairs in Buckinghamshire.

This is not the case.

The government has, in fact, provided this sum to Buckinghamshire as part of an overall annual ‘capital funding’ pot for all aspects of roads and infrastructure maintenance in the coming year – this is a settlement from central government that is made every year to Highways Authorities and thus is not ‘new money’ as such.

The government also specifies this money should be spent on all aspects of the network, such as bridges, cycleways and lighting columns as well as fixing and maintaining roads. As the Department for Transport itself has stated, it’s ‘not just the fixing of potholes’.

The government has also advised that 25% of this sum for Buckinghamshire and other Highways Authorities will be contingent on meeting ‘certain criteria’ – the details of which have not yet been provided to us.

Buckinghamshire Council has allocated £79 million in total to roads and infrastructure in the coming year’s budget plans - £20 million of which is the annual settlement from central government and the remaining £59 million coming from local funds. It is the council that has, during its budget-setting process, chosen to add further funding to fast-track local road repairs in recent years, pledging an additional £5 million in each of the last two years and we are proposing this again for 2025/26.

Buckinghamshire Council has allocated £120 million specifically to our local road network over the next four years. We have repaired 34,000 potholes, cleansed more than 86,000 gullies and completed more than 190 carriageway improvement schemes in the last year alone.

Of course, we very much welcome any additional funds from central government towards this work, but do want our residents to be fully aware that the lion’s share of the funding for local roads comes from their council tax. We know this is a big priority for our residents from their response to our own budget consultation and we are working hard to keep delivering an improved experience on our local roads which remains a key area of focus for this Council.

Steven Broadbent | Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Transport | Buckinghamshire Council