Motoring groups are calling for increased investment in road maintenance after a study showed drivers pay four times as much in taxes than is spent by the government on the roads.

A report for the RAC Foundation said that spending had dropped to £7.5bn in 2012 while the exchequer’s total take from motoring taxes remained just under £31bn – £24.8bn from fuel duty and £5.9bn from vehicle excise duty. In 2009, the amount spent on roads was £9.7bn, a third of the tax raised.

The report claims that drivers now contribute a net 9p per mile, or 6p per occupant mile, compared with subsidies for bus passengers of 10p per mile and 14p for rail passengers.

Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said there was a growing backlog on road repairs and local authorities’ spending commitments would mean even less money for highway maintenance in the future.

He added: “It is right that motorists should pay something to the exchequer in recognition of the impacts of driving in terms of congestion, accidents and emissions. But we also need a reasonable level of expenditure on the road network. Over recent years that has not happened.”

Motorists now contribute about 7% of all tax revenue.

The chancellor has frozen fuel duty since 2012, but road maintenance budgets were slashed when the coalition came to power. Last month the Commons public accounts committee said the policy had backfired with emergency injections of cash needed to cope with roads falling into disrepair, while the Department for Transport had paid more than £30m last year to compensate drivers for damage caused by potholes.