Road Condition by Council

What the figures mean

DfT groups each road’s surface condition into green (no further investigation or work is needed), amber (maintenance may be required soon) and red (should have been considered for maintenance: treatment may or may not be required, but the road should be investigated fully). The figures are the share of the road, measured in 10 metre sections, that is red.

A, B and C roads are surveyed by SCANNER machines, accredited for accuracy. There is no required method for unclassified roads, so councils use different surveys, and DfT advises caution when comparing councils on them. Unclassified figures come from different source data and cannot be compared with A, B and C roads.

The size of road networks varies: a change of 1 kilometre of red road moves the percentage more in a small council than in a large one (DfT).

This is from the notes to DfT’s road condition data tables.

A roads and motorways

Lowest share of red road first, the year to March 2026; change in percentage points on the year to March 2025. England: 4 per cent.

Not ranked, because DfT flags the figure as not comparable (36): Bath and North East Somerset 5, Birmingham 2, Blackburn with Darwen 4, Blackpool 3, Bradford 6, Brighton and Hove 17, Bristol 10, Calderdale 9, Cheshire West and Chester 1, Darlington 5, Derby 8, Derbyshire 6, Dorset 3, Knowsley 4, Liverpool 5, Luton 5, Manchester 7, Newcastle 6, North Northamptonshire 3, North Tyneside 13, North Yorkshire 2, Nottingham 15, Nottinghamshire 4, Oldham 4, Redcar and Cleveland 2, Salford 13, Shropshire 10, Southampton 5, Southend-on-Sea 8, St Helens 6, Staffordshire 3, Stockport 5, Telford and Wrekin 6, West Northamptonshire 3, Wigan 5, Wirral 5. DfT flags this figure: the council used a survey method other than SCANNER, so it is not directly comparable with other councils, and DfT does not advise comparing it year on year where the method changed.

No figure (4): Isles of Scilly, not applicable (DfT); Slough, submitted data was unrepresentative due to insufficient data coverage or known data quality issues (DfT); Stoke-on-Trent, submitted data was unrepresentative due to insufficient data coverage or known data quality issues (DfT); Tameside, submitted data was unrepresentative due to insufficient data coverage or known data quality issues (DfT).

B and C roads

Lowest share of red road first, the year to March 2026; change in percentage points on the year to March 2025. England: 6 per cent.

Not ranked, because DfT flags the figure as not comparable (61): Barnet 7, Bath and North East Somerset 17, Bexley 3, Birmingham 4, Blackburn with Darwen 13, Blackpool 4, Bradford 8, Brent 13, Brighton and Hove 14, Bristol 11, Bromley 26, Calderdale 14, Cheshire West and Chester 4, City of London Corporation 56, Croydon 35, Darlington 3, Derby 15, Derbyshire 5, Dorset 8, Ealing 10, Enfield 5, Greenwich 4, Hammersmith and Fulham 17, Haringey 27, Harrow 10, Havering 7, Kensington and Chelsea 1, Kingston upon Thames 11, Knowsley 7, Lewisham 8, Liverpool 6, Luton 9, Manchester 6, Merton 4, Newcastle 9, North Lincolnshire 10, North Northamptonshire 8, North Tyneside 6, North Yorkshire 4, Nottingham 16, Nottinghamshire 14, Oldham 3, Redbridge 21, Redcar and Cleveland 1, Salford 15, Solihull 1, Southampton 7, Southend-on-Sea 11, Southwark 10, St Helens 9, Staffordshire 9, Stockport 5, Stoke-on-Trent 3, Sutton 9, Telford and Wrekin 5, Tower Hamlets 12, Waltham Forest 29, West Northamptonshire 10, Westminster 12, Wigan 7, Wirral 6. DfT flags this figure: the council used a survey method other than SCANNER, so it is not directly comparable with other councils, and DfT does not advise comparing it year on year where the method changed.

No figure (10): Camden, submitted data was unrepresentative due to insufficient data coverage or known data quality issues (DfT); Hackney, data unavailable (DfT); Hillingdon, data unavailable (DfT); Isles of Scilly, not applicable (DfT); Islington, data unavailable (DfT); Lambeth, data unavailable (DfT); Richmond upon Thames, data unavailable (DfT); Shropshire, submitted data was unrepresentative due to insufficient data coverage or known data quality issues (DfT); Tameside, submitted data was unrepresentative due to insufficient data coverage or known data quality issues (DfT); Wandsworth, data unavailable (DfT).

Unclassified roads

Lowest share of red road first, the year to March 2026; change in percentage points on the year to March 2025. England: 16 per cent. Councils survey unclassified roads in different ways, so DfT advises caution comparing them.

No figure (6): Buckinghamshire, data unavailable (DfT); Halton, data unavailable (DfT); Isles of Scilly, not applicable (DfT); Richmond upon Thames, data unavailable (DfT); Shropshire, submitted data was unrepresentative due to insufficient data coverage or known data quality issues (DfT); Wandsworth, data unavailable (DfT).

About these figures

Figures are collected from highway authorities each year, and councils can revise the year before, so earlier years may change (DfT). Where DfT gives no figure it uses shorthand: data unavailable (DfT); submitted data was unrepresentative due to insufficient data coverage or known data quality issues (DfT); not applicable (DfT).

Source: Department for Transport, Road condition statistics: data tables (RDC), April 2007 to March 2026 (RDC0120, RDC0122, RDC0130, RDC0321). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.