Brent Council faces a substantial £180 million backlog in footway repairs, a figure revealed during a Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee meeting. Despite significant investment in recent years, including £35 million allocated to footways and highways, resident dissatisfaction with road conditions persists.

Officers explained that current funding levels are insufficient to address the extensive backlog, with the full resurfacing costs for footways alone estimated to reach £250 million. Councillor Promise Knight, Cabinet Member for Cleaner Streets, Transport and Public Realm, highlighted the council's shift from reactive repairs to a planned, preventative asset management approach, which is in line with national guidance.

This modern asset management approach prioritises planned and preventative maintenance, incorporating key components such as lifecycle planning, robust asset data, and risk-based decision-making, as promoted by the UK Roads Leadership Group's Well-Managed Highway Infrastructure Code of Practice. The strategy is underpinned by annual condition surveys of the carriageway and footway network, with an increasing adoption of digital survey technology, including vehicle-mounted cameras and artificial intelligence, to rapidly identify defects.

Infographic showing the lifecycle of a pothole and the benefits of planned maintenance
The lifecycle of a pothole and the benefits of planned maintenance

A Highway Asset Management Plan (HAMP) sets out a strategy for regular asset repair before failure, aiming to extend lifespans and reduce long-term costs. This includes carriageway resurfacing, surface dressing, thin surfacing, preventative patching, reconstruction of footways, renewal of road markings, bridge maintenance, drainage improvements, and public realm improvements. Techniques like injection patching enable quick repairs of deteriorating defects before they develop into larger, more costly potholes.

The Find and Fix programme, set to be implemented in 2025/26, represents a further evolution of this approach, combining proactive inspections with immediate on-site defect repairs for a more efficient and preventative strategy.

Bar chart showing the shift in highway repair methods by year, from reactive to preventative
Repair Method by Year

Despite these efforts, the council acknowledged that only approximately 35% of medium-priority defects can be funded due to budget constraints.

Bar chart showing the percentage of highway repairs by method (reactive vs. preventative) across different financial years
Percentage of Repairs by Method

Line graph showing the total number of carriageway repairs undertaken between financial years 2015/16 and 2025/26
Total Carriageway repairs

Public reports pack Wednesday 29-Jul-2026 18.00 Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee