Britain’s pothole crisis is continuing to worsen and the Department for Transport (DfT) does not have enough data on local roads to allocate funding effectively, the National Audit Office (NAO) has said.

In a report, the body said that given limited money, it is vital the DfT secures “maximum value from the funding it has available”. But at present the DfT does not have a good enough understanding of the condition of local roads or whether the funds it allocates are delivering improvements in road condition.

While local authorities are supposed to report the proportion of their road networks that should be considered for maintenance each year, they do not provide all the data that the DfT mandates. For example, one-fifth of authorities did not share data on the proportion of their A roads that should be considered for maintenance in 2023. There is also no reporting requirement for unclassified roads, which make up 62% of the local network – only around 70% of local authorities provided...