PM appearing on Radio 5 Live to promote pothole initiative but questions likely to focus on spending plans

Good morning. Keir Starmer will be on Radio 5 Live soon to talk about potholes. The government is promoting a new scheme that involves councils getting extra funding to repair roads, but with the release of cash contingent upon pothole monitoring – authorities having to publish details of the progress they are making. As the Department for Transport explains in a news release:

From mid-April, local authorities in England will start to receive their share of the government’s record £1.6bn highway maintenance funding, including an extra £500m – enough to fill 7 million potholes a year.

But to get the full amount, all councils in England must from today publish annual progress reports and prove public confidence in their work. Local authorities who fail to meet these strict conditions will see 25% of the uplift (£125m in total) withheld.