This is how much it would apparently cost to repair all Britain’s roads

Broken Britain? Probably not in the way you expected.

If you hadn’t noticed from the potholes, cracked tarmac and man-eating sinkholes blighting our streets, the UK currently finds itself in something of a ‘roads crisis’, worsening by the day thanks to increased traffic and insufficient funding.

And without immediate cash intervention, according to the latest Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance survey, the roads in England and Wales will only get worse. 

And here’s how much it will cost: £11.8bn.

The sort of figure a Bond villain would feel embarrassed asking a government for, never mind local highway agencies, it's up by £3bn compared to the cost estimated back in 2009. What's more, even with the cash, the job would apparently take 14 years.

According to the survey, local authorities are still feeling the knock-on effects of insufficient funding from previous governments and are now struggling to fund repairs because of cuts by the latest lot.

Alan Mackenzie, chairman of the Asphalt Industry Alliance, which produces the survey, said: “The network is ageing and the cumulative effect of decades of underfunding is continuing to take its toll.”

Almost a decade and a half for ‘reasonable’ roads? We’re not asking for gold-paved smooth lanes here, but surely this is an issue that needs addressing soon.

[Via: The Mirror]

(Images: Shutterstock)