The RSTA welcomes the Department for Transport’s summary report, based on the transparency reports submitted by local highway authorities. The findings show encouraging progress across highways maintenance, with local authorities increasingly investing in preventative treatments and permanent pothole repairs.
The report states that data from these transparency reports will be used to assess how well local authorities are maintaining their roads, and to determine eligibility for highway maintenance incentive funding. These local highway authority ratings will be published by the DfT with finalised data in early 2027.
Total spend on highways maintenance has increased from £4.4billion in 2025/26, to a projected spend of £4.9billion in 2026/27, with projections that this funding will see 7,000 miles of roads receiving maintenance in 2026/27, of which 5,000 miles will be treated with preventative maintenance treatments.
This means 5,000 miles of roads sealed to prevent water ingress and to extend the life of roads, which will see the arrest of deterioration that leads to the formation of potholes.
Good industry practice of investing in preventative road maintenance, to keep good to fair condition roads in good condition, has been reinforced, with 94% of authorities projecting to deliver preventative maintenance in 2026/27, up from 76% in 2025/26.
Of the potholes filled through reactive repairs, 77% were filled using permanent methods, compared to 23% with temporary patching
It’s recognised that in some cases temporary repairs are required to make a safety defect ‘safe’, but these may only last days or weeks, and therefore wherever possible a permanent repair should be made, even if this is a follow up to a temporary repair.
Developments in repair materials and methods provide many alternative time, cost or carbon efficient options to alternative hot inlay patching, to include thermal patching, mastic screeded or grouted materials, spray injection patching, cold lay materials, cold in-situ patching, or micro-asphalt patching.
Mike Hansford, Chief Executive of the Road Surface Treatments Association said “The summary report from the Department for Transport on the 2026/27 transparency reporting illustrates some early progress in promoting industry best practice within the sector and provides assurances to stakeholders that highway maintenance funding is being invested wisely.
I’m aware of evidence of good practice within many local authorities, and those are the authorities that are seeing positive outcomes and the greatest return on highway maintenance investment.
There are forward thinking local authorities who are applying low cost, spray applied preventative or rejuvenative treatments to asphalt surfaces still in good condition, to ensure they stay that way. And roads starting to deteriorate are being treated with crack and joint repairs, surface dressing, or microsurfacing (including cold applied ultra-thin surfacing – CAUTS) to arrest this deterioration and return them to good condition.
For those local authorities still not investing in preventative maintenance and permanent repair solutions or requiring more information or understanding; the RSTA is committed to supporting those authorities and providing information, evidential data and case studies, whilst offering formal training opportunities.