The government has allocated a further £140 million to repair roads damaged by the winter weather. 

Local authorities will now each be given an extra £36.5 million to tackle the problem, bringing the total amount of money available to them to £80 million. Road maintenance budgets have also swelled by £103.5 million.

Although the announcement was welcomed by the Freight Transport Association (FTA), it urged councils to look hard at their plans to look after the nation's highways, in order to make them more reliable.

Malcolm Bingham, head of road network management policy at the organisation, stated: "We have suffered from years of missed opportunities in road maintenance and now is the time to take action to create resilience in the network."

He claimed doing this was imperative to securing the economic success of the freight and logistics sector. 

Meanwhile, the secretary of state for transport, Patrick McLoughlin claimed the announcement would be of real benefit to millions of people across the country, especially those who use rural roads.