More than £2billion is needed to fix the backlog of road repairs in the South East – estimates a new report - that suggests 40% of local roads could collapse without repair.

The scale of the challenge, says the Asphalt Industry Alliance, is being made worse by rising costs, which means cash-strapped councils across the country are finding they are doing less with the budget they have.

The Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) report says poor local road conditions are impacting everyday lives and becoming the ‘number one complaint’ in the post bags of politicians and yet highways teams still don’t have enough money to fix them.

“Local authorities in the South East have a bit more money to spend this year but the impact of rising costs due to inflation means they have actually been able to do less with it,” explains Rick Green, Chair of the Asphalt Industry Alliance, which commissions the survey.

“Couple this with the effects of the extreme weather we are increasingly facing, and the result is that the rate at which local roads are suffering is accelerating towards breaking point.”

There are now more than 12,800 miles of local roads in the south east – 44% of the network – that would benefit from being entirely rebuilt within the next 15 years claims the survey.

Despite the number of potholes filled over the last 12 months more than doubling, claims the industry, surface conditions overall have declined and roads are now often a ‘patchwork’ of repairs.

Rick Green added: “There’s still a mountain to climb when it comes to fixing our local roads and while it’s great that English local authorities should be getting more money from the government through its Network North funding, it’s clearly not going to be enough to halt the decline.

“The Transport Secretary was quoted as saying that the additional £8.3 billion over 11 years is enough to resurface 5,000 miles of local roads. This sounds like a lot, but not when you consider that there are already more than 3,000 miles identified as structurally poor, with less than 5 years’ life remaining, in the eouth east region alone.”

Roads, on average, says the Asphalt Industry Alliance are only resurfaced once every 151 years.

Breakdown data gathered last year by the AA signaled that 2023 was the worse year for potholes for five years.

Its president Edmund King added: “The latest ALARM report shows just how much is needed to simply get our roads up to standard.

“Arguably the road network is a local council’s biggest asset, but not enough planned investment and repairs are being made to make streets safer and smoother for drivers and those on two wheels.”