Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to provide incentives to Local Highway Authorities to achieve green ratings under traffic light rankings for pothole repairs; and whether she plans to impose consequences on authorities not achieving green ratings.

The Government has provided a record investment of £7.3 billion for local highways maintenance over the next four years. A portion of this funding is incentive funding, which is subject to local highway authorities publishing their maintenance plans and meeting performance-based criteria. By meeting these criteria, local highway authorities will also be able to achieve better ratings. Any authorities that received a red rating under the Department’s rating system also receive access to a dedicated support programme to help them improve their rating and local road conditions.

At present, the Department has no plans to penalise or withhold resources from local highway authorities that do not achieve a green rating. We instead aim to support local highway authorities – through our record funding and wider support and guidance – so that they can achieve a better rating and to ensure road conditions improve nationwide.