Devon and Torbay Combined Authority receives the largest Department for Transport (DfT) capital grant for local road maintenance in 2026/27, at £89.4m. Norfolk County Council follows with £58m.
The DfT has allocated £1.617bn of capital funding for highway maintenance in England for 2026/27. This is the first year of a £7.3bn, four-year settlement running to 2029/30. The funding supports renewing carriageways, footways, bridges, lighting and drainage but does not cover operational costs such as gritting or inspections.
How the allocations work
The DfT divides the total between baseline and incentive funding. Baseline funding provides most of the capital, while incentive funding depends on councils meeting conditions such as publishing annual transparency reports and fully spending their maintenance grants.
The block allocations reflect road lengths and asset types, splitting funds roughly equally across A, B and C roads, unclassified roads, bridges and lighting. Councils with many bridges or dual carriageways receive higher allocations per mile. Councils operating street lighting Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts do not receive the lighting element.
Funding rankings and per-mile figures
Among non-London authorities, Dorset, Surrey and Hertfordshire rank in the top 20 for total capital funding. Brighton and Hove leads for per-mile funding among baseline recipients, with £14,561 for each mile of locally managed road. Milton Keynes (£13,377) and Cheshire East (£12,878) follow. At the lower end, Plymouth and Stoke-on-Trent receive under £9,200 per mile.
London boroughs benefited most from funding changes in 2026/27, as they qualify for baseline funding for the first time. Boroughs such as Tower Hamlets and City of London see year-on-year increases over 290%. Most English councils outside London receive modest uplifts between 3.3% and 4.0% compared with 2025/26.
Where the money is spent
Councils add significant funding from their own budgets. Essex County Council, for example, projects total highways maintenance spending of £144.8m in 2026/27, nearly three times its government grant of £54m. Other large spenders include Kent, Hertfordshire and Lincolnshire.
Reported resurfacing and structural maintenance lengths vary widely. Hertfordshire plans to resurface or reconstruct 106km of carriageway, Lincolnshire around 115km and Herefordshire about 64km. Several councils prioritise preventative maintenance treatments, aiming to reduce costly reactive repairs such as pothole patching.
Preventative maintenance gains ground
West Sussex County Council states its strategy encourages fixing defects before they worsen. Dorset expects 51% of its carriageway activity in 2026/27 to be preventative or proactive. Plymouth continues to increase investment in preventative treatments to reduce potholes.
Stoke-on-Trent projects spending £3.46m on preventative carriageway treatments compared with £266,000 on reactive patching. Many councils deliver maintenance in-house or through contractors specialising in surfacing.
Understanding costs and national context
Estimated costs from Warrington and Cumberland councils show carriageway resurfacing may cost about £640,000 to £730,000 per kilometre and preventative treatments about £67,000 per kilometre. Costs vary depending on road width, treatment depth and traffic management.
The Asphalt Industry Alliance estimates the carriageway repair backlog in England and Wales at £18.62bn. It reports average highway maintenance budgets rose 17%, yet 16% of local roads have less than five years' structural life remaining.
Regional variations and wider UK picture
The DfT allocations cover England only. In Scotland and Wales, equivalent funding passes through government settlements with councils. Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure maintains public roads directly.
Data sources and notes
Capital allocations come from the DfT highways maintenance block formula allocations for 2026–2030 (last updated 14 April 2026). Mileage data reflects locally managed roads per DfT’s 2025 statistics.
Spending and resurfacing figures are projections taken from 2026/27 transparency reports published by councils, updated as of 16 October 2026. Figures exclude motorways and trunk roads managed by National Highways.
Some large councils, such as Devon, Lincolnshire and Lancashire, receive settlements via combined authorities now responsible for their road maintenance funding. In areas with mayoral combined authorities, baseline funding is incorporated into City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements, with separate incentive funding reported here.
Councils and combined authorities are responsible for deciding how to allocate their capital funding across roads, bridges, lighting and drainage. The DfT says the settlement aims to enable longer-term investment in preventative maintenance over short-term repairs.
