Councils Rejected 75 Percent of Pothole Damage Claims From UK Drivers Last Year

• UK councils turned down roughly three in four pothole damage claims in 2024, according to Freedom of Information data from 177 local authorities obtained by the RAC.
• Five councils, including Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, rejected 99 percent of the claims they received, while a separate study of English county councils found only 6.5 percent of the money drivers claimed was ever paid out.
• Claims have risen 91 percent over the past three years as the road repair backlog in England and Wales climbs past £18 billion, and the autumn freeze-thaw cycle is about to make the roads worse again.

The Claim Most Drivers Are Not Being Paid

A driver who hits a pothole hard enough to damage a tyre, an alloy wheel or a suspension arm has a right in law to claim the repair cost back from the council responsible for that road. Most who try to exercise that right are turned away. Freedom of Information requests sent to 177 UK councils by the RAC found that claims submitted for pothole damage rose from 27,731 in 2021 to 53,015 in 2024, a 91 percent increase, while the proportion actually paid barely moved. Around 40,000 claims were rejected in 2024 alone, and only 26 percent of councils paid out any compensation at all that year.

Total payouts across every council that did pay reached an estimated £3,564,824 in 2024, averaging £390 per successful claim. Set against tens of thousands of rejected claims each seeking a few hundred pounds for a tyre or an alloy wheel, the money actually returned to drivers is a small fraction of what councils collectively caused in damage.

The Councils Rejecting Almost Everything

Five authorities rejected 99 percent of the claims against them in 2024: Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Medway, Carmarthenshire and Telford and Wrekin. A BBC analysis of the same data found that around half of all Welsh councils turned down almost every claim they received. At the other end of the scale, Bridgend paid out on every claim it received, though the council had only 52 claims to deal with that year, a fraction of the caseload facing larger counties.

A separate set of Freedom of Information requests, sent to all 21 English county councils by price comparison site Quotezone, tells a similar story from a different angle. Thirteen councils supplied full figures covering the twelve months to March 2025. Between them, drivers claimed £10,273,040 in pothole damage. Councils paid out £666,712, just 6.49 percent of what was claimed, on 9,351 individual claims.

Even within that small pool of successful claims, the gap between councils is stark. Oxfordshire paid out on 20.52 percent of the value of claims against it, the best rate among the councils that responded, followed by Warwickshire on 19.35 percent and Nottinghamshire on 16.05 percent. Hampshire paid out on just 1.41 percent of claims, Leicestershire 1.5 percent and Worcestershire 2.45 percent, meaning a driver’s odds of being paid for the same damage depend heavily on which side of a county line the pothole happens to sit.

Why Councils Can Say No

Councils are not being arbitrary when they reject a claim. Section 58 of the Highways Act 1980 gives a council a legal defence against a pothole claim if it can show it took reasonable care to keep the road in a safe condition, including evidence of a proper inspection and maintenance schedule. In practice, that means a council can escape paying out simply by producing inspection records showing the road was checked within its own stated schedule, even when a pothole formed and caused damage between inspections.

That legal bar is one reason claim numbers have grown so much faster than payouts. Derbyshire County Council saw claims rise from 224 in 2021 to 3,307 in 2024, an increase of 3,083. Glasgow City Council went from 1,140 to 2,794, and Oxfordshire County Council from 488 to 1,941. More drivers are trying their luck as road conditions worsen, and the Section 58 defence is absorbing almost all of the extra claims rather than paying them.

What You Can Do Before You Claim

A claim is far more likely to succeed with the right evidence gathered immediately, before the pothole is repaired or the road resurfaced. Photograph the pothole itself, with something placed next to it to show its depth and width, such as a ruler or a coin. Note the exact location, ideally with GPS coordinates from a phone, and the date and time. Keep every receipt for repair work, and get a garage to state in writing that the damage is consistent with pothole impact rather than wear and tear. Councils frequently reject claims on the grounds that the damage could have another cause.

Report the pothole to the council before claiming, through its website or via the national FixMyStreet service, and keep the reference number. A pothole that was already reported and left unrepaired for weeks is harder for a council to defend under Section 58 than one nobody flagged. If a claim is rejected, ask the council for its inspection records for that stretch of road under the Freedom of Information Act. Several of the drivers behind the rising claims figures above only succeeded after requesting these records and finding gaps in the council’s own inspection schedule.

Claims that are rejected can be escalated to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which investigates whether a council followed its own policies properly, though it cannot overturn a lawful Section 58 defence. Small claims court remains an option for claims under £10,000, and the fee is often worth it against a repair bill for alloy wheels or suspension components that can run into four figures.

Does Car Insurance Cover Pothole Damage

Most fully-insured and third-party fire and theft policies will cover pothole damage as an accidental damage claim, but it almost always means paying the policy excess first, which can easily exceed the cost of a single alloy wheel or tyre. Claiming through the council instead avoids that excess entirely if the claim succeeds, which is one reason the council route is worth pursuing even when it takes longer and the odds of success are lower than most drivers would like. Claiming through insurance can also affect a driver’s no-claims bonus depending on the insurer, even when the driver was not at fault for the road surface that caused the damage, so it is worth checking both options before deciding which to pursue, and worth asking an insurer directly whether a pothole claim is treated as fault or non-fault on that specific policy.

Garages that regularly deal with pothole damage recommend having a tyre and wheel inspected even after what feels like a minor impact. A sidewall bulge or a bent alloy is not always visible without the wheel being removed, and a wheel that looks fine but is subtly out of shape can fail later at speed. A written inspection report from that visit doubles as useful evidence if a claim against the council follows.

A Backlog That Is Not Shrinking

None of this is happening against a backdrop of improving roads. Industry body the Asphalt Industry Alliance puts the cost of clearing the pothole repair backlog across England and Wales at roughly £18.6 billion, a sum councils and government have repeatedly described as a national disgrace without closing it. The government announced a record £1.6 billion for road maintenance in the 2025 to 2026 financial year, a fraction of what the overall backlog would need to clear in a single year.

Potholes form fastest when water gets into small cracks in the road surface and then freezes, expanding and breaking the surface apart. With autumn rain now arriving and the first frosts of the year only weeks away, the number of fresh potholes, and the number of damaged wheels, tyres and suspension components, is about to rise again. Drivers who hit one should document everything straight away rather than waiting. The councils fielding these claims have shown they will use every legal tool available to avoid paying out.

Sources:

• Local Government Lawyer: Councils see massive jump in pothole claims but vast majority fail, new data shows
• Quotezone: Less than 10% of compensation paid for potholes
• Fleet World: Pothole repair backlog swells to record £18.6bn in ‘national disgrace’