Highways maintenance spending figures
| Year | Capital allocated by DfT | Capital spend | Revenue spend | Estimate of percentage spent on preventative maintenance | Estimate of percentage spent on reactive maintenance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 to 2026 (projected) | £60.442 million | £73.798 million | £32.812 million | 12% | 12% |
| 2024 to 2025 | £44.275 million | £83.336 million | £32.468 million | 9% | 10% |
| 2023 to 2024 | £45.607 million | £71.767 million | £30.677 million | 11% | 10% |
| 2022 to 2023 | £38.793 million | £61.799 million | £20.937 million | 13% | 8% |
| 2021 to 2022 | £38.973 million | £51.273 million | £19.732 million | 12% | 10% |
| 2020 to 2021 | £51.061 million | £51.061 million | £19.732 million | 11% | 10% |
Additional information on spending
Our long-term strategy prioritises a shift from reactive, short-term fixes to a more sustainable and cost-effective preventative maintenance approach. This transition:
- enhances network resilience
- improves safety
- delivers better value for money over the asset lifecycle
Planned preventative maintenance schemes
Preventative maintenance activities include:
- surface dressing
- micro-surfacing
- patching in advance of surface dressing
- footway slurry sealing
- carriageway rejuvenation
Further information on road maintenance and preventative maintenance activities.
In 2024 to 2025, we delivered:
- 240 carriageway resurfacing schemes, covering 116.06 miles (186.8 km)
- 231 surface dressing schemes, covering 174 miles (280 km)
- 267 footway micro-surfacing schemes
- 34 footway reconstruction schemes
- 31 structures maintained, including bridges and retaining walls
Reactive maintenance
Reactive maintenance primarily addresses urgent issues such as:
- potholes
- signage
- lighting faults
Approximately 85% of reactive spend is allocated to pothole repairs.
Estimate of number of potholes filled
| 2020 to 2021 | 2021 to 2022 | 2022 to 2023 | 2023 to 2024 | 2024 to 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50,422 | 67,143 | 66,909 | 70,270 | 72,421 |
In 2024 to 2025, we also completed 1,189 signage repairs, with a projected 1,210 for 2025 to 2026.
Determining the maintenance split
The split between preventative and reactive maintenance is determined through a data-driven approach using:
- our CONFIRM asset management system
- Coarse Visual Inspections (CVI)
- SCANNER (surface condition assessment for the national network of roads) surveys
- the Lincolnshire Condition Indicator (LCI)
This enables us to prioritise schemes based on asset condition, risk, and long-term value.
We are actively working to increase the proportion of spend on preventative maintenance. This includes:
- refining our lifecycle planning
- investing in early intervention treatments
- expanding our use of AI and digital tools to better predict and prevent asset deterioration