Pothole Compensation Claims Jump 91 Percent as Councils Reject Up to 90 Percent

Britain’s roads are crumbling faster than councils can fix them, and drivers are increasingly trying to recover the cost of the damage. Pothole compensation claims to local authorities have risen 91 per cent in three years. Yet the figures reveal an uncomfortable truth for anyone hoping for a payout: most claims are turned down flat, and the average cheque for those that succeed does not even cover a typical repair bill. If your car has been damaged by a crater in the road, knowing how the system actually works is the difference between getting your money back and wasting hours on a rejected claim.

The numbers behind the claims surge

Figures gathered from 177 local authorities show pothole compensation claims climbed from 27,731 in 2021 to 53,015 in 2024, a rise of 91 per cent over three years. The 2024 total was actually slightly down on the 56,655 claims lodged in 2023, hinting that the steep upward curve may be levelling off, but the longer trend is unmistakable. Drivers are hitting more potholes, suffering more damage, and turning to councils to pay for it in numbers that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

The pressure on the road network is plain in the breakdown data. The AA was called out to 137,000 pothole-related incidents in January and February 2026 alone, around 25,000 more than the same two months a year earlier. Behind those callouts sits a repair backlog that local authority engineers now put at a record £18.6 billion, the estimated cost of bringing every road back to a reasonable standard. Councils filled around 1.9 million potholes last year, and still the gap between damage and repair keeps widening.

The financial sting for drivers is sharper than the headline payouts suggest. The average successful pothole claim paid out around £390 in 2024. The cost of repairing anything worse than a simple puncture on a typical family car runs closer to £590, so even drivers who win are often left out of pocket once buckled alloys, damaged suspension or tracking work are added up.

Why so many claims are rejected

The hardest fact for drivers to swallow is the rejection rate. Only around 26 per cent of claims were settled in 2024, with councils paying out on 13,832 cases at an estimated total of £3.56 million. Put another way, roughly three in four claims were refused. Of the authorities surveyed, 172 rejected more than 90 per cent of the claims they received, and several turned down 99 per cent.

The reason lies in the law. Under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980, councils have a duty to maintain the public roads they are responsible for. But Section 58 of the same Act gives them a powerful defence: if a council can show it had a reasonable system of inspection and repair in place, and that it did not know and could not reasonably have known about the specific pothole before the damage happened, it can legally reject the claim. In practice, that means a council that inspected the road on schedule and had no prior report of the defect will usually escape liability, even if the pothole was real and the damage genuine.

There is also a stark postcode lottery in what successful claimants receive. The London borough of Merton paid the highest average per claim at £2,267, while Derbyshire paid out the largest total sum at around £605,000. Where you live, and how your local authority runs its inspection regime, has a direct bearing on whether you see a penny.

How to claim for pothole damage

If your vehicle is damaged, the quality of your evidence decides everything. Start at the scene if it is safe to do so. Photograph the pothole from several angles, place a familiar object such as a shoe or a coin next to it for scale, and capture its width and depth. Note the exact location, the date and the time, and the direction you were travelling. Photograph the damage to your car as well.

Next, work out who is responsible. Local roads belong to your county or unitary council, while motorways and major A-roads in England are managed by National Highways. Report the pothole through the council’s online reporting tool or at gov.uk/report-pothole. This step matters for a second reason: a logged report helps establish that the authority had been put on notice, which can weaken its Section 58 defence for the next driver who hits the same hole.

Get your car inspected by a garage and obtain a written quote or receipt that links the damage to a pothole impact. Then submit a formal compensation claim to the relevant highway authority, attaching your photographs, location details and repair costs. Keep copies of everything. If the council rejects the claim citing its inspection regime, you are entitled to ask for the inspection and maintenance records for that stretch of road under a freedom of information request. If those records show missed or overdue inspections, you have grounds to push back, and ultimately to take the claim to the small claims court, where the cost of starting a case is modest.

What happens next

For most drivers, the realistic question is whether claiming is worth the effort given the rejection rates. For minor damage below your insurance excess, a well-evidenced claim costs only your time and is worth pursuing, particularly if you can show the pothole had been reported before. For serious damage, an insurance claim may be faster, though it risks your no-claims discount and excess. Weigh the repair bill against both routes before deciding.

The bigger picture is unlikely to improve quickly while the repair backlog sits at £18.6 billion. Until road maintenance budgets close that gap, drivers should assume potholes are a risk they have to manage themselves: slow down over rough surfaces, leave space to spot defects rather than swerving at the last moment, and check tyres and wheels after a heavy impact even if the car still feels normal. Reporting every pothole you hit is not only about your own claim. Each logged report builds the paper trail that makes the next claim, perhaps someone else’s, far harder for a council to dismiss.

Sources:

• https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/council-pothole-claims-rise-by-90percent-in-three-years/
• https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/driving-advice/rac-pothole-index-statistics-data-and-projections/
• https://www.gov.uk/report-pothole
• https://motoringchronicle.com/?p=44116
• https://motoringchronicle.com/?p=44115