How bad are potholes and roads in England?

The Department for Transport publishes road condition statistics each year. For the year ending March 2025, published 21 January 2026, councils reported that 5% of their A roads, 7% of B and C roads and 17% of unclassified roads were rated red, meaning they should have been considered for maintenance.

DfT also publishes local road maintenance ratings, giving each highway authority in England a red, amber or green rating, and councils publish their own highway maintenance reports.

There is no official national count of potholes. Condition data comes from surveys of road surfaces, and methods differ between road types, so compare like with like.

Official sources: Road network size and condition (DfT) · Local road maintenance ratings

The latest figure

The newest value is at Department for Transport (DfT). More on it: Road deaths (Great Britain).

When is the next figure out?

Provisional annual results in late May and final results in late July (30 July 2026 for 2025); the RAS0101 table gives its next update as July 2027. Table file URLs change with each update

Every official release due in the next two weeks is on the release calendar.

Terms used in this answer

• Calendar year
  January to December. Used for GDP annual totals, registered deaths and many international comparisons, unlike the April to March financial year.
• Administrative data
  Information collected by organisations while running a service, such as tax records, benefit claims or hospital activity, and then used to produce statistics.
• Great Britain and the United Kingdom
  Great Britain is England, Scotland and Wales. The United Kingdom is Great Britain plus Northern Ireland. Some statistics cover only one or the other.
• Rate per 100,000
  The number of events divided by the population and multiplied by 100,000, so areas of different sizes can be compared on a like-for-like basis.
• Provisional figures
  Early estimates published before all data are in, so users get timely figures. They are expected to be updated when later data arrive.

Where the figures come from

• Local government finance statistics (MHCLG, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland)
  Where to find official council spending, council tax, finance settlement, debt and audit data for England, plus Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Related questions

• Where can I find road traffic statistics?
• What do councils spend their money on?
• How much has council tax gone up this year?

This answer says where the official figures are published and how they are defined. It gives no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request. More questions about councils and local government: all Councils and local government questions.