Pothole damage claims to councils in Britain skyrocketed between 2022 and 2023. Data from the RAC shows claims submitted to 18 local authorities with the largest road networks jumped from 8,327 to 20,432 in just a year. Surrey County Council had the sharpest rise, with claims climbing from 734 in 2022 to 3,418 in 2023. Hampshire County Council wasn’t far behind, seeing claims leap from 750 to 2,654.
But here’s the catch: only 15% of the claims filed last year were paid out, amounting to around £824,000, with drivers receiving an average of just £260 per claim. That’s less than half the typical cost of fixing serious pothole damage, which can run up to £460.
Want to file a claim? The odds aren’t in your favour. Nearly 76% of the 17 councils that paid any compensation refused over three-quarters of the claims they received. Some were even harsher: Gloucestershire, Essex, Kent, Cornwall, and Powys councils rejected at least 90% of their claims in 2023.
Surrey turned down the most overall, rejecting 2,954 (86%) of its 3,418 claims. Meanwhile, Shropshire Council stood out as the most generous, approving 68% of its claims.
The major reason for rejected claims is that councils claim they weren’t aware of the pothole. Under Section 58 of the Highways Act 1980, councils aren’t liable if they didn’t know a pothole existed. Of the 8,172 claims denied for this reason, 74% were rejected because the councils claimed ignorance. In Gloucestershire and Hertfordshire, 100% of refused claims were thrown out for this reason.
The data also shows where pothole hotspots are. Surrey had one claim for every mile of its road network, while Hampshire, Essex, and Hertfordshire had one claim for every two miles.
Defending claims isn’t cheap either. Councils spent over £166,000 in legal fees last year, with Lincolnshire County Council alone burning through £96,000 to fight claims.
Simon Williams, head of policy at the RAC, called out the inefficiency: “These findings are a stark reminder that the ongoing poor condition of many of the UK’s local roads is burning holes in the budgets of both local authorities and drivers.
“While some councils appeared to prioritise paying legal fees over settling pothole claims, the cost in time and money of defending claims appears to far outweigh the expense of reimbursing drivers for the damage done to their vehicle in the first place. Even if a driver successfully pursued compensation, the average sum paid out of £260 is often well below the cost to fix a pothole-damaged car, for anything more serious than a punctured tyre.
“When it comes to the true extent of the problem, we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg, as almost the same number of councils refused to tell us why they threw out pothole claims compared to those that did. We strongly urge drivers to inform councils about any potholes they are aware of"
“We have long argued that local authorities need greater certainty of funding so they can tackle to the root cause of the UK’s pothole plague. For this reason, we’re pleased they’ll receive £500m to soon start the process of improving their road networks. It’s vital that this money is used by councils not to merely fill potholes, but to carry out preventative maintenance – through surface dressing roads at regular intervals to stop roads falling apart in the first place. Roads that are beyond reasonable repair should be resurfaced.”
