Nearly Half of UK Councils Refuse Nine in Ten Pothole Claims From Drivers

• Pothole compensation claims to English and Welsh councils rose 91 percent in three years, from 27,731 in 2021 to 53,015 in 2024, according to RAC analysis of Freedom of Information responses from 177 authorities.
• Just over a quarter of those claims were paid out in 2024, and 45 percent of councils refused more than nine in ten of the claims they received, with five authorities turning down 99 percent.
• Drivers can still win a payout by proving the council knew about the defect and failed to repair it within a reasonable time, using the authority’s own inspection records and a formal request under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Rejection Letter Nearly Every Driver Gets First

Submit a pothole damage claim to most UK councils and the most likely outcome is a refusal. The RAC’s analysis of Freedom of Information responses from 177 local authorities found that claims jumped from 27,731 in 2021 to 53,015 in 2024, a rise of 91 percent, yet only 13,832 of those 2024 claims were settled. That is a national success rate of 26 percent, and the record at individual council level is far worse. Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Medway, Carmarthenshire and Telford all rejected 99 percent of the claims they received in 2024, while 77 councils, 45 percent of those that responded, turned down more than nine in ten.

Where councils did pay, the amounts were modest. The RAC put the total compensation paid out in 2024 at roughly £3.56 million, an average of £390 per successful claim. Separate Fleet News analysis of the same FOI data found sharp variation by authority: Derbyshire paid out around £257 per claim across 2,355 successful claims, Glasgow paid £253 per claim, and Wrexham paid £2,026 per claim on a much smaller number. One council, Bridgend, paid out on all 52 of the claims it received, proof that a full refusal rate is a choice some authorities make rather than an inevitable outcome.

Why the Backlog Keeps Growing

The claims data sits on top of a maintenance backlog that the Asphalt Industry Alliance’s 2026 ALARM survey puts at a record £18.62 billion across England and Wales, with 79 percent of councils responding. On current funding, the AIA estimates it would take 12 years to clear that backlog. Sixteen percent of local roads, more than 32,500 miles, have less than five years of structural life left, and a further 49 percent have under 15 years. Councils told the survey they need an extra £1.37 billion a year just to keep the network standing still, an average of £8.1 million per authority. The Government has pledged £1.6 billion for road maintenance in 2025/26, around £500 million more than the previous year, and £7.3 billion over the following four years, which it says will fix more than seven million extra potholes.

Confused.com’s own Freedom of Information work, covering 183 of 207 councils it approached, found more than 3.4 million potholes reported between 2022 and 2025, with over 600,000 of those, 18 percent of the four-year total, reported in 2025 alone. Devon logged the most reports of any council area, 210,754 over the period, followed by West Yorkshire with 191,001. Across the same four years, councils paid out just over £11 million in total pothole compensation, including £1.1 million in 2025. The success rate for claims fell from 29 percent in 2024 to 19 percent in 2025, even as the number of claims kept rising. Confused.com’s polling put the average repair bill a driver pays out of their own pocket at £175, against an average successful claim payout of £242.

The Legal Test a Council Has to Fail

Most refusals rest on Section 58 of the Highways Act 1980, which gives a council a defence against a damage claim if it can show it took reasonable care to keep the road safe. In practice that means producing its inspection records: how often the road is checked, when the pothole was first logged, and whether a repair was scheduled within the authority’s own target timescale, typically between 24 hours for the most dangerous defects and 28 days for lower-priority ones. A council that inspected the road recently and found nothing, or that repaired the defect within its published timescale once it was reported, has a reasonable chance of defeating a claim. A council that has no record of inspecting the road for months, or that left a known defect unrepaired past its own deadline, has a much weaker case.

How to Build a Claim That Survives the First Refusal

Photograph the pothole immediately, with a coin or a tape measure next to it to show its depth and width, and note the exact location, ideally with a what3words reference or GPS coordinates from a phone. Report the defect to the council straight away through its official reporting channel, as the date of that report starts the clock on its repair obligation, and keep the reference number. Get at least one repair quote and keep any receipts if the car has already been fixed. If the council denies the claim, submit a Freedom of Information request for its inspection and maintenance records for that stretch of road covering the period before the damage occurred; many successful challenges turn on gaps in those records. A claim can be pursued for three years from the date of the damage under the general limitation period for personal injury and property claims in England and Wales. If a council still refuses unreasonably, drivers can escalate to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which investigates whether the authority followed its own policies and procedures fairly.

Going Through Your Own Insurer Instead

A council claim is not the only route if a pothole has damaged a tyre, alloy wheel or suspension component. Fully covered car insurance policies generally include pothole damage as standard, though it is usually treated the same as any other accidental damage claim, which means an excess applies and a claim can affect a no-claims discount at renewal. For a repair bill around the £175 average that Confused.com’s polling found drivers paying out of pocket, many will come out ahead by paying for the repair directly and pursuing the council for reimbursement afterwards, rather than involving an insurer and risking a bigger increase in next year’s premium than the claim itself was worth. For a more serious repair, such as a cracked alloy wheel or damaged suspension arm running into several hundred pounds, comparing the insurance excess against the likely council payout, and the odds of actually winning that payout given the rejection rates above, is worth doing before deciding which route to take. Some insurers also offer a dedicated pothole damage add-on with no excess, usually sold as part of a wider breakdown or legal cover package, which is worth checking for on an existing policy before assuming a standard claim is the only option.

Whichever route is used, timing counts. Highways authorities are not able to fix every defect the moment it is reported, but their own published inspection and repair policies set out how quickly a pothole of a given size and location should be dealt with once logged, and a council that misses its own deadline has significantly weakened any Section 58 defence it might otherwise rely on. Keeping a simple record, the date reported, the reference number given, and the date (if any) the council says it will return to repair the defect, turns a vague complaint into evidence a claims handler or an ombudsman investigator can actually use.

Want more car content? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for the best automotive news and analysis on the internet.

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to follow us on Microsoft Start.

Sources:

• Local Government Lawyer: Councils see “massive” jump in pothole claims, but vast majority fail, new data shows
• Fleet News: Just one in four pothole compensation claims paid out
• Fleet World: Pothole repair backlog swells to record £18.6bn in ‘national disgrace’
• Confused.com: Britain’s Pothole Crisis: Over 3 million reported in the last four years