Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to page 26 of the policy paper entitled Network North, published on 13 October 2023, how the funding to fix potholes will be allocated for (a) national highways and (b) local highways; what his Department's timescales are for allocating this funding; and by what date he expects the funding to be spent.

The £8.3 billion of additional Network North roads resurfacing funding announced on 4 October 2023 is for road resurfacing and wider maintenance activity on the local highway network. It covers an eleven-year time period from 2023/24 to 2033/34.

£150 million of the funding has already been paid out to local authorities in the 2023/24 financial year to allow them to make an immediate start on improving their local roads, and a further £150 million has been allocated for the 2024/25 financial year.

Local authorities have also been given an indicative total funding allocation covering the entire eleven-year period. All of these details are on gov.uk at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/highways-maintenance-funding-allocations.

The profiling of funding for the years 2025/26 onwards has not yet been confirmed and will be a matter for the next Spending Review. The funding will be backloaded, meaning that relatively more of it will be available in later years to ensure that it aligns with the profile of savings from the rescoping of the HS2 programme.