Politicians and potholes are ubiquitous: not a week goes by, it seems, without a picture of a candidate or councillor pointing perplexed at a pothole and telling you it is the Council’s fault.

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Did you know that London councils spend millions every year in compensation for people who are injured, or whose vehicles are damaged, as a result of potholes?

It adds up - as Council budgets are squeezed further and further, money spent this way is less money for road works - and that’s a pot that’s already dangerously low.

When Sadiq Khan was first elected Mayor of London in 2016, TfL provided more than £125m to London councils to fund road works, through a pot of money known as LIP funding. Today, the figure given annually sits at just 60 per cent of that £125m level, despite inflationary pressures and cost increases.

Put simply, councils are expected to do more with less - but that isn’t even the worst part.

The Mayor of London’s anti-car agenda goes beyond the ULEZ expansion. Of the £74m LIP funding given to councils in 2025/26, it comes with conditions to receive it: that Councils must use it for “Mayoral priorities” - which include things like blanket 20mph zones and congestion-causing, inaccurately named “Low Traffic Neighbourhoods” (LTN).

If you’re a council that doesn’t want these, like Bromley, you suddenly have reduced access to the money you need to improve road safety through measures like resurfacing work. It puts your local council in the unenviable position of having to choose: implement unpopular measures like LTNs and blanket 20mph zones in order to fix roads, or hold out against these anti-car measures at the cost of funding to fill in potholes. Either way, taxpayers lose out.

Thomas Turrell AM is the Conservative Assembly Member for Bexley & Bromley and City Hall Conservative Transport Spokesman.

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