The London Borough of Bexley has responded to the threat issued this week in the House of Commons by the Prime Minister to cut funding to fix potholes and repair roads in Bexley. The Prime Minister made his statement in response to misinformation provided to him in a question from the MP for Bexleyheath and Crayford, Mr Daniel Francis, who had wrongly claimed he had been told to stop reporting potholes.

Deputy Leader of the Council, Cllr David Leaf, has written to the Prime Minister to demand that he corrects the record and Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, Cllr Richard Diment, gave a statement detailing the facts at a meeting of the Council's Cabinet on 23 October 2025. Since 2022, the Council has undertaken over 200 major highways maintenance schemes, and is this year investing £5.5m in fixing roads, most of which comes from the Council's own resources. As a result, over 2,500 potholes are fixed each year, and surveys show Bexley's roads to be in better condition than many other London Boroughs. At the Public Cabinet meeting it was also resolved that Mr Francis should also apologise and correct the record.

Cllr Leaf said:

It's disgraceful that the Prime Minister has threatened to take money away from Bexley on the basis of incorrect information he was given by Daniel Francis MP. We will fight any attempt by him to cut funding for Bexley and now he has the facts he should do the right thing and correct the record, and Mr Francis should apologise.

In Bexley we have a strong record investing in our roads, repairing potholes and have made it easy for residents to report issues through Fix My Street. Instead of talking down our Borough, Daniel Francis should have used his question to the Prime Minister to call on the Government to provide us with more funding rather than spread misinformation which puts our current funding at risk."

Cllr Diment said:

The claim made by Mr Francis that he was told not to report potholes is false and incorrect. We've offered to work with him to ensure highways issues are reported in an effective way that maximises the use of council resources, but he has failed to take up that offer.

Our highways officers and contractors are working every day to inspect and repair our roads, respond to enquiries from residents, and to address defects to keep our road network safe. We have a multi-million pound programme of investments that fix thousands of potholes each year and resurfaces and restructures dozens of roads. While we provide most of this funding from Council resources, the loss of any money provided by the Government will hinder the work we do, especially with winter approaching."

Read the letter sent to the Prime Minister from Cllr David Leaf (PDF)