Budget boost of £120m for councils to fix roads

Councils will be able to access up to £120m to repair local roads over the next two years, under new plans set out in the Welsh Government’s Final Budget 2025-26.

The new local government borrowing initiative will provide an extra £10m of revenue funding to local councils to enable them to unlock an additional £120m of capital funding to accelerate the process of fixing our local roads and pavements.

The scheme will be designed in partnership with the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) and will be open for applications by the end of this financial year.

Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales, Ken Skates said:”I am delighted that we are able to help local councils access the necessary funding to enable them to accelerate some of the much-needed repair work on local roads across Wales.

“Connecting our communities by fixing our roads is a key priority for us and we will continue to do all that we can to improve the future resilience of roads across Wales.”

Cllr Andrew Morgan OBE, Leader of WLGA and transport spokesperson added: “I have been working closely with the Welsh Government on this initiative over recent months and I am really pleased to see it come to fruition. A previous initiative between 2012 and 2014 was highly successful and showed what can be achieved by councils when the right level of funding is available.

“This funding will enable significant improvements to roads, pavements and bridges across Wales.”

Last month Mr Skates also announced a funding boost of £25m to renew an extra 100km of Wales’ major roads and prevent around 30,000 road defects and potholes in the new financial year.