What does the pledge mean? 

Labour’s manifesto pledges to “fix an additional one million potholes across England in each year of the next parliament”.

This pledge appears quite specific—it gives a precise number, timeframe and geographical scope, while the word “additional” implies the government intends to fix one million more potholes than are currently being fixed each year. But it’s unclear how the government intends to track progress on the pledge, and the data we do have on the number of potholes being fixed is patchy.

There is no nationally-agreed definition of a pothole, and the size and depth of what might be counted as one may vary between local authorities. When we asked the Department for Transport (DfT) how progress will be measured, we were referred to a set of road condition statistics.

These statistics provide a range of data on the condition of roads, and for example indicate that 14% of unclassified roads in England (which represent 62% of the road network managed by local authorities) will require some form of maintenance within 12 months. But they do not appear to specifically count the number of potholes fixed, so it’s unclear how they will be used to assess progress against the one million target.When we pushed the DfT on this, we were told it is working with local authorities to ensure they collect the right data.

The lack of specific information in this field was highlighted in a January 2025 Public Accounts Committee report—the committee said the government “does not know enough to understand what state roads are in due to poor data”.

There are some broad industry estimates for the number of potholes however, and the number filled. 

For example, the RAC has estimated there are on average around six potholes per mile on council-controlled roads in England and Wales, which mostly includes those carriageways designated B and lower. 

Government statistics show in 2022 there were around 213,200 miles of minor roads in Great Britain and more recently the National Audit Office put the figure for England alone at 183,000. So these figures suggest there could be as many as one million potholes in England at any given time. Ahead of the 2024 election, the Labour party cited a similar figure in relation to the UK as a whole, which we wrote about at the time. 

Meanwhile the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) estimated in its most recent Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) report that councils in England filled 1.8 million potholes during the year to March 2024. That would suggest that for the government to meet its pledge, at least 2.8 million potholes a year would need to be filled. 

There are some caveats around the AIA’s figure however. For example, it is based on extrapolated data from a survey of local authorities, with the most recent survey having a response rate of 72% in England and Wales. And as mentioned above, there is variation in the way local authorities count potholes. 

What progress has been made?

The lack of reliable national potholes data makes it difficult to track the delivery of this pledge, and it’s unclear why a precise target was set when it appears there’s no official published data which allows us to measure progress with the same precision. It’s also worth noting that, as the AIA report suggests, an increase in the number of potholes being filled could in fact indicate road surface conditions are actually getting worse.   

For the time being, however, we have rated this pledge as “In progress”, on the grounds that the government has announced significant additional funding to address the issue and there is some broad industry data available which may give us some idea in time of how many more potholes have been filled.

On 20 December 2024, the government announced that £1.6 billion would be made available to authorities across England for 2025/26 to “repair roads and fill potholes”, an increase of £500 million on the amount assigned in 2024/25.

A spokesperson for the DfT told Full Fact: “This will enable local authorities to fix up to seven million more potholes this year, going well beyond our original commitment of one million more potholes annually.”

This estimate is based on the average cost of filling a pothole in England and Wales being around £70, a figure also quoted by the AIA. Filling seven million potholes at a cost of £70 each would cost £490 million.

It is down to local authorities to decide which roads need repairing, so it remains to be seen exactly how many potholes the additional funding will actually be used to fill. 

However the government says the funding has built-in incentives to ensure that local authorities spend the money wisely, collect the right data and deliver proactive maintenance, with 25% of the uplift held back initially, and that it will set out more details in due course.