Potholes can cause endless problems for motorists and are truly dangerous for cyclists, yet they are a business sector in themselves

When Philip Hammond turbo-charged his budget this week with a string of giveaways, one of the biggest cheers went up when he allotted an extra £420 million to repairing holes in the roads. “Every MP will testify that potholes are high on the public’s list of concerns,” the chancellor told the Commons.

He’s not wrong. Potholes trigger a pavlovian reaction in motorists and voters. The condition of Britain’s roads is in some polls by far the most important concern of transport users, higher than congestion, rail fares, pollution or safety. Only rising fuel costs seem to infuriate the public even more, according to one Ipsos Mori survey.

As one roadbuilding executive joked this week, if John Major had launched a war on potholes rather than