The Times reports that the Government will spend £6bn over the next six years to fix potholes across England. More than £4.7bn will be shared between 115 English councils, while £575m will be set aside to help repair and maintain highway infrastructure such as junctions, bridges and street lighting. The remaining money will go into an incentive fund scheme to reward councils that deliver cost-effective improvements. It is the first time that local authorities have been given locked-in funding over this length in time, which the Government says will help councils to plan ahead and save money for the taxpayer. Local authorities welcomed the investment, but said £6bn fell far short of the amount needed to repair Britain’s “poor quality” roads. An LGA spokesman said: “Recent harsh winters and decades of underfunding by successive governments have created a national backlog of road repairs that would take £12bn and a decade for councils to fix.”