The Government is short-changing those who live in the countryside by cutting funding meant to fix our roads

There is nothing more idyllic than a drive in the British countryside along winding country roads. Or at least that used to be the case. These days the road conditions in areas like my constituency of South Shropshire make driving at best inconvenient and at worst utterly treacherous.

I was delighted to secure a debate in Westminster Hall on road conditions in rural areas. While I know that South Shropshire faces significant issues, these are concerns shared by rural constituencies up and down the country.

In January of this year, more than 2,100 road defects were reported to Shropshire Council, double the number for the year before. The recent and appropriately titled ALARM report (Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance) describes an £18 billion backlog of road repairs in England and Wales.

Over two-thirds of my constituents travel to work by car or van every day. There is just no other way to get around. I live over a mile away from the nearest bus stop. This is the reality of life in rural areas, and why the condition of our roads is so important to us.

In a short space of time nearly 500 residents filled out my survey on the condition of their local roads. 98% of respondents report their roads as either poor or very poor. One area was described to me as ‘like driving on the moon’.

Some of the roads in my constituency are so bad they are even damaging tractor tyres. Imagine a pothole that can damage a tractor and consider the damage done to a bicycle or a moped. One constituent of mine recently had their moped completely written off after driving into a pothole.

Last year, an astonishing £645 million was spent repairing vehicles damaged by potholes on our country’s roads, a number that is going up and up as drivers repair damaged tyres, windscreens and wrecked suspensions. At a time when fuel prices are going up, and with the Chancellor still planning to hike up fuel duty, the cost of repairs is yet another spiralling bill faced by drivers.

The condition of the roads can be frustrating and costly, but it can also be dangerous. I came across an accident on a road near me recently and administered first aid on an injured driver. Residents have sent me photos of upturned cars where drivers have had to avoid potholes and swerved off the road.

The Government’s new Road Safety Strategy rightly identified rural roads as the least safe in terms of fatalities but did not commit to tangible action. I have called for the government to prioritise greater investment into roads in rural areas.

We need secure, long-term funding. The Labour Government decided to hold back the funding committed by the last Government unless the council meets a set of criteria. This prevents the council from long-term planning. I have urged the Government to provide clear funding up to 2032, as was the intention of the previous Government.

Rural councils are already facing the pressure of having the Rural Services Delivery Grant scrapped and having ‘remoteness’ removed as a factor for funding allocations. All this has left Shropshire Council short of cash while it struggles to maintain over 3,200 miles of roads in the county.

I am also disappointed, at a local level, of the drop in the number of potholes being fixed year on year by the new Liberal Democrat Council. I hope that the pressure of this debate and increased local attention to this issue will bring those numbers back up again. It is not right that constituents face dramatic hikes to council tax while their roads crumble.

The focus must not just be on repairs but on maintenance. According to The Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE), every £1 invested in local highways maintenance brings an absolute minimum return of £2.20, with further benefits estimated at up to £5. Developments in Artificial Intelligence and autonomous systems provide some hope in cost-effective pothole prevention programmes.

We need long-term funding and clear strategies of road maintenance and preventative measures if we are to reverse the disastrous condition of roads in rural areas.