CBI seeks bigger spend
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• Britain's "hopelessly inadequate" road and rail network is likely to force companies to relocate to Northern France unless transport spending is increased by 2243 billion a year, warns the Confederation of British Industry.
The CBI report, Trade Routes to the Future, says congestion has already added £10 a week to every family's grocery bill.
Marks & Spencer estimates delivery problems in London add an extra E2 million to its transport bill; Sainsbury says congestion costs its business 2.3.4 million; Royal Mail Letters believes it adds more than 210 million to its operating costs. And one leading transport company involved in the report says its fleet has to be 30% larger in the congested South-East areas.
The CBI claims that most operators could reduce transport costs by 10-15% if they could rely on a network of "reasonably congestion-free motorways."
It calls on the Government to spend £21 billion on providing the UK with a competitive transport infrastructure. "Even this would be modest by French and West German standards," says CBI director general John Banham.
Plans put forward by the CBI include an East Coast motorway extending the M1 1 to Middlesbrough; a Home Counties orbital motorway from Oxford to the M20; an M2 extension to Dover; an M23 extension to Brighton, and upgrading the Al to dualthree lane standard from London to Edinburgh.
The report also calls for a Government minister to be given special responsibility for sorting out London's traffic Eoblems.
Only £6 billion is expected to be made available for improving Britain's roads in the annual public expenditure budget unveiled this week. This is only half the sum demanded by former Transport Secretary Paul Channon for a 10-year roads programme.