The roads are not failing by accident. The funding model is broken.
Drivers are paying billions into the system, but local roads still do not receive an automatic fair share. Councils are left trying to manage years of decay with budgets that do not match the scale of the job.
Motorists pay in. Local roads do not get a guaranteed return.
Motorists are forecast to pay £9.1bn in Vehicle Excise Duty and £24bn in fuel duty in 2025/26. Yet local roads have no automatic VED ring-fence. The money goes into the national pot while councils are left to patch, delay, ration and apologise.
That is why this campaign exists. Not because one road has a few holes. Because the whole model is wrong.
The numbers do not add up.
Forecast Vehicle Excise Duty receipts for 2025/26.
Forecast fuel duty receipts for 2025/26.
Capital funding for local highways maintenance in England for 2025/26.
Reported carriageway repair backlog for England and Wales.
The extra funding is welcome. But when the backlog is counted in tens of billions, a short-term boost is not a serious recovery plan. You cannot patch your way out of decades of underinvestment.
This is how the system keeps failing.
Drivers pay
Motorists pay through VED, fuel duty, insurance, repairs, delays and lost time.
Money goes central
VED is not automatically returned to the local road network where vehicles are kept and used.
Councils patch
Local authorities are pushed into temporary repairs because long-term renewal is too expensive.
Roads fail again
The same roads break up, the same potholes return, and the public pays again.
Council tax should not be the roads bailout fund.
Council tax should not be raided to cover the hole left by central government. Drivers already pay enough through motoring taxes.
When highways budgets are short, councils are forced into impossible choices. That pressure does not just hit drivers. It hits other local services too.
We pay enough. Stop using motorists as a cash machine.
Bad roads are not just a motorist problem.
Everyone feels the cost when roads are allowed to decay. Poor roads damage vehicles, delay journeys, increase risk, and force councils to stretch money that should be protecting wider local services.
Motorcyclists and cyclists
Potholes, loose surfaces, failed repairs and broken road edges can turn a minor defect into a serious injury risk.
Pedestrians and disabled residents
Failed surfaces, poor drainage, damaged crossings and neglected access routes make everyday movement harder and less safe.
Workers and small businesses
Delivery drivers, carers, tradespeople, taxis and local businesses lose time and money when roads are unreliable.
Emergency access
Bad road surfaces and blocked or failing access routes can slow down the very services people rely on in a crisis.
Local services
When highways budgets do not stretch, local authorities face pressure across wider services and future maintenance is delayed again.
Residents on forgotten roads
People living on unadopted roads can pay into the system like everyone else while being told their road is not the council’s responsibility.
Some roads are trapped in a legal no-man’s-land.
Unadopted roads can be among the worst hazards. Old failed concrete surfaces, broken drainage, dangerous potholes and poor access can sit outside normal maintenance responsibility because the road is not maintained at public expense.
Residents still pay council tax. They still pay VED. They still pay fuel duty. But when the road fails, they are often told the authority has no normal duty to maintain it. That may be the legal position, but it is not a fair long-term answer.
- Dangerous unadopted residential roads need a proper recovery route.
- Old failed concrete roads need more than patchwork repairs.
- Residents need a clear, funded path to repair and adoption where appropriate.
- Government cannot keep ignoring roads just because responsibility is inconvenient.
Government collects nationally. Roads fail locally.
That is the heart of the problem. The money is taken at national level, but the damage is seen street by street, town by town, and authority by authority.
Restore Our Roads uses local authority data to show the gap between what drivers pay, what councils receive, the road network they are responsible for, and what a fairer ring-fenced model could return.
This is not normal wear and tear. It is managed decline.
Drivers are forecast to pay billions. Local roads still have no automatic VED ring-fence. Councils are left short. Residents on unadopted roads are left in limbo. Everyone pays for the failure.
The answer is not more excuses, more patching, or more pressure on council tax.
Ring-fence VED. Fund the backlog. Fix forgotten roads.