More than 40,000 miles of Britain's roads are at risk of crumbling within five years, a major potholes survey has found.

Council figures show that a fifth of the country’s roads are in “poor condition” with less than “five years of life” remaining.

The survey found, however, that the number of potholes repaired by councils in England and Wales rose by more than a fifth last year.

Transport campaigners accused authorities of spending money on quick fix “patch and mend” repairs rather than resurfacing damaged roads.

It comes after Philip Hammond announced plans in October to spend £28.8bn on the UK road network. Councils were given an extra £420m to spend on tackling potholes, after roads were damaged by freezing weather.

Some 1.86 million potholes were filled in during 2018/19 compared with 1.53 million during the previous 12 months, the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (Alarm) survey found.