The chancellor has announced an immediate £420m cash boost for local authority highway maintenance budgets, with millions more for transport projects.

In his Budget speech, Philip Hammond said the £420m during the current financial year could be used to 'tackle potholes, repair damaged roads, and invest in keeping bridges open and safe'.

The Government will also make £150m of National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF) cash available to local authorities for ‘small improvement projects such as roundabouts'.

Chief executive of the Road Surface Treatments Association, Howard Robinson, said: 'The reactive additional funding announced by Philip Hammond shows that he has failed to do the maths and understand the economic folly of spending an average £52 per square metre to repair a pothole against the £2 per square metre to surface dress and maintain a road.

'The odd additional funding for pothole repairs is welcomed but it is no substitute for the long-term funding of road maintenance programmes that would prevent the potholes from forming in the first place.'

The Government is also extending the Transforming Cities Fund by a year to 2022/23 at a cost of £770m, which will provide an extra £240m to the six metro mayors for transport investment in their areas.