The Great British Pothole Poll 2026

The state of the nation’s ongoing pothole crisis is laid bare by a new driver survey from Select Car Leasing.

Despite millions of pounds being channelled into road crater repairs by the Government, more than half (58%) of those polled said the quality of the highways has got WORSE in the past year.

Almost 8 out of 10 motorists (80%) said councils in their local area weren’t fixing potholes in a timely manner.

A further 70% said that when potholes were repaired, the fixes were failing in a matter of days or weeks.

Meanwhile 32% of drivers have suffered damage to their vehicles as a result of potholes in the past 12 months, with an average repair bill costing £99.

The Great British Pothole Poll 2026 - Headline Stats 

• 58% said general road quality is WORSE than 12 months ago

• 43% said there was ‘no discernible difference’ to road quality despite increased Govt funding

• 39% rated potholes in their area as either ‘extremely severe’ or ‘very severe'

• 80% said local authorities weren’t fixing potholes quickly enough

• 70% said pothole repairs were failing within days or weeks of being ‘fixed’

• 32% of drivers have suffered pothole damage to their car in the past 12 months

• Flat tyres (43%) and wheel alignment issues (27%) were the biggest issues reported

• 40% said they have to take potentially ‘dangerous’ evasive action to avoid a pothole on either ‘every’ or ‘most of the journeys they take

• Average vehicle repair bill for pothole damage is £99 for the past year

• Yet 70% have never officially reported a pothole to the local council or authority

Is additional government pothole funding falling into a black hole?

Our Great British Pothole Poll examines the lived experiences of 1,000 UK drivers, rather than relying on repair stats issued by councils and local authorities.

And it’s set against a backdrop of huge increases to government funding in recent years to remedy Britain’s pothole crisis.

At the end of 2025, following the Autumn budget, the UK government announced a record £7.3 billion local roads funds boost for councils in England (note: our survey covers the UK, not just England).

It followed a similar announcement in December 2024 where Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer urged councils to ‘get on’ with fixing potholes while championing an increased £1.6bn budget for road maintenance, which included about £500 million extra to help fix potholes.

According to the Department for Transport, local councils across England began receiving this additional funding from mid-April 2025.

In March last year, First Minister John Swinney insisted Scottish councils were ‘adequately’ funded to fix potholes.

Meanwhile 2024 saw then-Infrastructure Minister John O'Dowd setting aside an additional £8.1m to fix the worst roads in Northern Ireland.

But many months down the road, our survey reveals how little has changed - or it has got worse for many - despite more money being added to the pothole pot.

Are councils doing enough to fix potholes?

Not according to our Great British Pothole Survey.

Here’s what you said:

• Overall, a majority of 58% of respondents said the general quality of roads in their areas had worsened in the past 12 months.
• Only 10.5% said the road condition had improved.
• 80% of people agreed with the sentiment ‘my local council does not fix potholes in a timely manner’ while 70% said that even when potholes were fixed, they were subsequently breaking apart and leaving behind a crater once more ‘within days or weeks’ of being repaired.
• When asked specifically about how additional pothole funding might have benefitted the roads in their region, the majority (43%) said the extra cash had made ‘no discernible difference to road quality’ in the past 12 months.
• Some 33% said there HAD been a pothole improvement within the past year as a result of additional funding, but 14% reported potholes were WORSE than a year ago.
• Worryingly, the majority of respondents (28%) said potholes ‘don’t get fixed’ at all despite being reported, 7% saying they get repaired within a week.

Which regions are the worst and least satisfied with pothole repairs?

Let’s delve into some of the regional findings. We grouped respondents according to their nearest geographical city.

“My roads have got WORSE in the last 12 months” - agree

1. Brighton - 94%
2. Plymouth - 80%
3. Nottingham - 71.15%
4. Norwich - 71%
5. Bristol - 70%
6. Sheffield - 66%
7. Cardiff - 60%
8. Newcastle - 59.6%
9. Birmingham - 59.4%
10. Leeds - 59.2%

“My council does not fix potholes in a timely manner” - agree

1. Brighton - 100%
2. Plymouth - 90%
3. Nottingham - 88.4%
4. Norwich - 88.2%
5. Manchester - 87.6%
6. Glasgow - 85%
7. Birmingham - 82%
8. Leeds - 81.4%
9. Cardiff - 81.25%
10. Southampton - 79%

“Pothole repairs are failing within days and weeks of being fixed” - agree

1. Brighton - 94%
2. Manchester - 81%
3. Plymouth - 80%
4. Nottingham - 77%
5. Norwich - 76%
6. Glasgow - 75%
7. Liverpool - 72.5%
8. Leeds - 72.2%
9. Bristol - 70%
10. Cardiff - 69%

A common theme emerges - motorists in Brighton appear to be the least satisfied at the state of their roads and the pothole carnage that ensues.

In February 2026, East Sussex Highways said more than 3,700 potholes were reported in January 2026, up from about 2,310 the previous January.

The city's cabinet member for transport, Trevor Muten, encouraged residents to report a pothole amid growing concerns.

Potholes - an ever-present danger

We asked our survey respondents about what actions they might take when they encounter a pothole on the road.

Worryingly, many of those polled described how swerving or braking sharply to avoid a pothole put them in a potentially ‘dangerous’ situation.

Almost a fifth (17%) said that swerving and braking to avoid potholes led to a ‘dangerous’ situation ‘every single journey I take’ while a further 22% said it happened ‘most journeys I take’.

Just 5% of drivers said they don’t ever take evasive action to avoid a pothole, relying instead on their car’s suspension to soak up the force.

Overall, 57% of drivers reported swerving to avoid potholes on every or most journeys, whether that put them into a 'dangerous' situation or not. 

How much money do drivers spend on pothole damage repairs?

We asked drivers to estimate how much they’ve spent on pothole-related vehicle repairs in the past 12 months.

The average cost suffered across the UK in that time period was £99.37p - which is actually lower than the official government estimate of £320 annually.

Costs can be much higher, though.

One in three (38%) drivers reported they have spent more than £200 repairing pothole damage, with additional repairs under £200 being reported by 31% of those interviewed.

Residents of Glasgow (£138) reported paying the most, on average, for repairs over the past 12 months, while residents of Belfast (£49) pay the least, on average.

“For many motorists, especially those commuting daily, these unexpected bills can be difficult to absorb. Regular vehicle checks and reporting potholes to local authorities can help soften the blow and reduce future incidents, but there’s clearly a wider infrastructure issue that needs addressing.”  - Graham Conway, Managing Director at Select Car Leasing.

What sort of damage are potholes doing to vehicles?

Potholes can damage vehicles in many ways.

Our survey found the most common issue was a flat tyre, experienced by nearly half (43%) of respondents who had experienced damage.

That was followed by wheel alignment/steering problems (27%) and suspension issues (22%)**.

Are drivers reporting potholes when they see them?

Despite the damage being done and the depth of feeling about the state of the UK’s roads, the majority of people aren’t actually reporting potholes to the authorities.

Some 70% of drivers said they’d ‘never’ officially reported a pothole to the local council or authority while 30% said they had.

Drivers from Gen Z are the most likely to file an official complaint - with 43% of 17 - 24-year-olds answering 'yes' in our survey.

The second age group most likely to report a pothole are 25-35-year-olds (38%) with those at the age of 55+ being least likely to report a pothole (25%).

On average, our survey says women are more likely to report a pothole than men, with 31% of women and 28% of men answering 'yes'.

Our survey also indicates that potholes are more likely to be reported across the East Midlands, North West, and Scotland, with 38% of those asked from those regions saying they’d done so.

"With so many motorists complaining that potholes aren’t fixed, or they're repaired in a shoddy fashion, it’s perhaps not surprising that drivers have a sense of weariness about reporting them. They might have also read about the relatively low numbers of drivers being awarded pothole compensation from local councils, with around a quarter of claims actually resulting in a payout.” - Mark Tongue, CEO and Co-Founder at Select. 

Whose responsibility is it to fix potholes, and how do you report one?

In the UK, it’s usually the responsibility of local councils to fix potholes on local roads (A, B, minor) within their jurisdiction, while National Highways is responsible for repairing potholes on major A-roads.

You can report a pothole via the official government portal, which also has contact details for authorities in Scotland and Northern Ireland: https://www.gov.uk/report-pothole

You can also log a report at Fix My Street, which is run by UK not-for-profit organisation mySociety.

When it comes to seeking compensation for pothole-related vehicle damage, you’ll need to document the scene with photos, measurements, and witness details, and submit a formal claim with repair quotes or invoices.

The claim will need to be submitted to the relevant responsible authority - either your local council or National Highways.

For full details, head to: https://www.gov.uk/claim-for-damage-to-your-vehicle

Potholes - a typical case study, as told to Select Car Leasing

One motorist told us how one single pothole caused £600 worth of damage after he blew-out two tyres in one fell swoop.

Nick Baum was driving his Volvo XC90 in the early hours of the morning at the end of January this year. It was dark and wet.

He was making his way along Marcham Road, Abingdon, Oxfordshire - right outside the entrance to Abingdon Community Hospital - when the car in front swerved around a pothole.

Unable to alter his own course, Nick carried on driving in a straight line before he heard a ‘massive bang’ as the pothole took out both tyres on the passenger side of the car.

Fortunately, his alloy wheels weren’t damaged - unlike many of the people polled in our Select Car Leasing survey.

The two tyres cost around £600 to replace and a compensation claim to Oxfordshire County Council was submitted. In the immediate days that followed, Nick didn’t see evidence of the council having been out to fix the pothole - despite many others having also reported the issue via Fix My Street.

The claim was submitted on Jan 22nd and as of the end of February (at the time of writing) no further correspondence had been received in relation to any potential compensation.

Nick, from Didcot, South Oxfordshire, is less than impressed with the state of the roads in general.

Like the overwhelming majority of respondents in our survey, Nick says that when road repairs are made it’s not long before they’ve crumbled once more.

He adds: “You see it over and over again. There was a pothole close to home that reappeared four times in quick succession despite repair crews having been out to mend it. They dig it through, shove something down, and then the next time it rains, the pothole starts to reappear again.

“It doesn’t matter where you’re driving - country roads, highways, in the city - it’s the same story. We get tiny patch-ups that don’t last. I lay the responsibility with the council but I think part of the problem is the utility companies who dig up the road and create weak points without fixing repairs properly.”

Are things worse now than five years ago?

Nick, a 55-year-old technical operations director, adds: “It’s been bad for a long time but just recently, in the last couple of years, things seem to have got worse. The process of fixing potholes is broken. The quality of work to repair the crater just isn’t there. And when the pothole comes back, the whole process starts all over again. Simply put, there are more potholes and not enough crews to repair them.”

How Are Potholes Created?

Potholes are primarily created through one of three main ways. These include:

• Water Infiltration: When rain and snow enter cracks in asphalt and reach the layers beneath the road, it weakens its foundations.
• Freezing and Thawing: As water enters these cracks and saturates the base layer, a continuous cycle of freeze and thaw expands these cracks and weakens their structure.
• Constant traffic: Further damage from traffic, especially from heavier vehicles, causes the weakened road structure to crack, creating potholes.

How many Potholes Are There in the UK?

Estimates vary, but the RAC suggests there are around 1 million potholes on UK roads at any given time - around 6 potholes per mile.

The actual figure could be MUCH higher.

AI-based research from Stan the App suggested there could be up to 11.5 million potholes in the UK (as of July 2024).

There’s no uniform size or depth for what constitutes a pothole, but the majority of local councils say a pothole needs to be around 25mm-40mm deep for them to investigate, with a width of around 150mn-300mm.

So (using AI to help us with the maths…) the average, circular-shaped pothole could potentially hold up to 2-3 litres of water each.

Using the conservative figure of one million potholes in the UK, all of the potholes put together could hold a staggering 3,000,000 litres of rainwater - enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool while still having 500,000 litres of water left!

How to protect your car from potholes while on the road?

Potholes are a problem that won’t be going away any time soon. So, how can we minimise damage to our vehicles while on the road?

Our expert, Graham Conway, suggests:

• Check Tyres Regularly: It’s important to regularly check the air pressure and tread of your tyres to lessen the likelihood of a blowout should you hit a pothole.
• Inspect Wheels and Suspension: After hitting a pothole, always check your wheels and suspension. A compromised wheel axle or suspension can result in increased damage to your car if you hit a pothole again.
• Keep Photo Evidence: Document all evidence of damage so you can report it later to your local council.

There are also certain driving techniques that can help lessen the impact of potholes - read our handy guide.  

Notes: 

The research was conducted by Censuswide, among a sample of 1,000 British drivers (17+). The data was collected between 30.01.2026 and 06.02.2026. 

** Drivers were able to select more than one type of damage, so percentages will not total 100%. 

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