Congestion soars as road investment plummets

Britain faces falling industrial competitiveness, a glut of traffic congestion and increased road pollution unless the Government reverses declining investment in the transport infrastructure.

The warning comes from the Confederation of British Industry, the Freight Transport Association and the Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors who have accused the Government of reneging on its 1989 White Paper "Roads for Prosperity".

Road congestion already costs Britain œ20 billion a year. A newly-published FTA transport activity survey reveals that more than 20 per cent of companies have increased road freight activities in the second quarter of 1996.

Companies are complaining that traffic congestion is getting worse.

An FTA spokesman said: "Eighty per cent of the promises made in the 1989 White Paper have vanished. If we want to sustain the level of economic growth needed by Britain we have to overcome the transport problem. "

A transport report, 'Winning Ways", published by the CBI last week says that investment in the UK transport infrastructure must rise to more than œ11 billion a year over 10 years if it is to maintain a decent standard. In 1994/95 it was under œ9.5 billion. John Hackett, director general of the FCEC said: "As congestion continues to rise we'll get more pollution, increasing frustration among road-users as well as a lowering of our competitiveness. "

A spokeswoman for the Department of Transport said: "Our policy is to consolidate what we have and upgrade the current road network. We can't keep on building more and more roads and there's only a certain amount of money we can spend."