By ROBERT FOLKER, NEWS REPORTER and ROB HULL, MOTORING EDITOR
Pothole repairs must have a 'five-year guarantee' say campaigners as the AA revealed it was called out last year to 613,638 road damage- related incidents.
The Pothole Partnership want contractors to offer the warranty on each non- emergency pothole they fill.
The AA, a member of the campaign group, said this would be a 'game-changer' for the quality of road surfaces.
To mark National Pothole Day today, the motoring organisation revealed that it attended a daily average of 1,681 pothole call-outs last year – though this was 5 per cent down on 2024.
Common vehicle problems caused by poor road surfaces include tyre punctures, damaged shock absorbers, broken suspension springs and distorted wheels.
The AA said the average repair bill resulting from such an incident was £350. However, the RAC says that when taking tyre repairs out of the equation, the average cost for a typical family car is even higher, at £590.
To mark National Pothole Day today, the AA revealed that it attended a daily average of 1,681 pothole call-outs last year – though this was 5% down on 2024
It means the cost for UK drivers hitting potholes in 2025 could have been a total of £645million, an increase of £66million from 2024 estimates.
Allianz's own data shows that the value of the average pothole-related insurance claim made by drivers in the UK has increased by 55 per cent in the last five years to around £4,000.
AA president Edmund King said: 'A five-year warranty on every non-emergency pothole repair would be a game-changer.
'It shifts the focus from short-term patches to long-lasting repairs and ensures accountability from those carrying out the work.'
Freedom of Information requests, submitted by the Pothole Partnership, show inconsistencies in how councils measure pothole repairs, with 78 methods used across the UK.
The group said the proposed guarantee would mean contractors are required to fix a pothole for free if it reappears within five years.
A recent YouGov poll of almost 5,000 Britons recently found that the vast majority believe roads in their area are deteriorating.
Just 7 per cent of adults surveyed said they believe the roads in their local area are in a better than average state, relative to 36 per cent who believe their roads are below average.
Nearly half (48 per cent) rate their local roadways as average, compared to roads in other parts of the country.
The 'Pothole Partnership', which is made up of a group of organisations including the AA, JCB, British Cycling, and the National Motorcyclists Council, says pothole repairs must come with a 5-year guarantee that they won't reappear in the same place
David Giles, chair of the UK's Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) said the backlog of local road repairs in England and Wales currently stands at an eye watering £16.8billion. road users.
'Data from the AIA's Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey reports that 17.5million potholes have been filled in the last decade in England and Wales. That's the equivalent of one every 18 seconds, costing almost £1.1 billion, yet the condition of our local roads continues to be a cause of national embarrassment,' Giles told the Daily Mail.
'If we want to see an improvement in the condition and resilience of our local roads, the focus needs to shift away from an endless cycle of pothole patch and repair by giving local authority highway engineers the tools they need to do the job so they don't form in the first place.'
The RAC echoed the AIA's calls.
Its research shows that the condition and maintenance of local roads – those which drivers generally begin and end their journeys on – is the top motoring concern for the nation's drivers.
Some 47 per cent of those surveyed said the state of local, council-run roads is their top bugbear, ahead of any other motoring issue. Three-in-10 drivers (29 per cent) say their vehicles have suffered from pothole-related damage over a 12-month period.
RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: 'Fixing potholes as permanently as possible is vital. 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.
'If we continue to obsess with just filling potholes, that's all we'll continue to get.'
A Local Government Association spokesman said: 'Councils face a £17billion backlog of road repairs.
'Only longer-term funding certainty will help councils more effectively plan for future maintenance schemes, focusing more on preventative measures.'
New red, amber and green ratings let the public see which local highway authorities are fixing potholes effectively
Just last week, the Government debuted a new map system that names and shames local authorities which are failing to fix potholes. However, it revealed that Labour-run councils are the worst offenders.
Pictured: The best and worst councils for pot holes
The new traffic light rating system grades town halls on road conditions as well as how effectively they are spending maintenance funding.
Embarrassingly, it ranks Labour-run Greenwich Council – home to the Prime Minister's closest parliamentary aide Abena Oppong-Asare and local government minister Matthew Pennycook – as one of the worst for pothole repairs.
Other Labour councils such as Waltham Forest, Bolton and Cumberland are also in the most serious 'red' for repairs category – while Tory-controlled Essex and
Hillingdon as well as Reform-run Worcestershire are all given a top green rating by ministers.
A separate study by Go.Compare car insurance has also rated the performance of local authorities when it comes to pothole repairs.
It found that that Staffordshire County Council - which is a Reform UK authority - is among the slowest across England and Wales at fixing craters after they had been reported.
1. Staffordshire County Council: 209.6 days
2. Coventry City Council: 82.3 days
3. Stoke-on-Trent City Council: 72 days
4. Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council: 55.3 days
5. Flintshire County Council: 46.3 days
6. Shropshire Council: 45.9 days
7. South Gloucestershire Council: 42.6 days
8. Bolton Borough Council: 41.3 days
9. Ceredigion County Council: 37.2 days
10. Caerphilly County Borough Council: 34.5 days
Source: Go.Compare FOI request to 171 UK councils - 69 responded with data
Based on figures the insurer obtained from 69 of the 171 councils across the country, the midlands council took an average of 209.6 days to repair potholes between 2022 and 2024 - by far the slowest response time out of the councils which provided data.
After Staffordshire, Coventry City Council had the second slowest average repair time at 82.3 days - less than half the time taken by Staffordshire. Stoke-on-Trent City Council had the third slowest at 72 days.
Other councils ranking among the slowest for pothole repairs include Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council (55.3 days) Flintshire County Council (46.3 days) and Shropshire Council (45.92 days).
The Daily Mail has been campaigning for an end to the UK's pothole plague.
In November's Budget, the Government committed to providing £7.3billion for local road maintenance funding for the four years.
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