EEF report calls for more UK road investment

Investment in roads should be the UK’s transport spending priority, according to a report by the EEF. The employers' body's Transport for Growth survey found that 80% of manufacturers see the road network as vital to their business, with 50% revealing that operating costs are increasing substantially due to the condition of the road network. Meanwhile Roger Salomone, the EEF’s head of business environment policy, noted that a mere 6% of firms regard the rail network as a priority, despite the fact investmen
April 8, 2013 Read time: 1 min
Investment in roads should be the UK’s transport spending priority, according to a report by the EEF. The employers' body's Transport for Growth survey found that 80% of manufacturers see the road network as vital to their business, with 50% revealing that operating costs are increasing substantially due to the condition of the road network.

Meanwhile Roger Salomone, the EEF’s head of business environment policy, noted that a mere 6% of firms regard the rail network as a priority, despite the fact investment in this area attracts 30% more government cash. The report is also said to have uncovered ambivalence among manufacturers to the €37.91 billion (£32 billion) High Speed 2 rail scheme.

Related Content

  • Russian road-building industry on verge of massive cuts
    June 10, 2015
    Russia’s road building programme looks set to be cut due to economic issues - Eugene Gerden writes The Russian Government is considering a significant cut to the existing road building programme for the current year. This is due to a current economic crisis in the country, caused by Western sanctions as well as a collapse in the price of oil and gas.
    Read More
  • Road maintenance crisis hits UK and US, as experts gather in Paris
    January 9, 2015
    The road maintenance crisis in the United Kingdom and the United States is deepening amid estimates that it will take millions of dollars to stop highway infrastructure from crumbling, including falling prey to potholes. A recent report by the BBC in the UK said that at least one municipal council, the city of Leeds, is facing a bill of nearly US$153 million to patch up its potholed roads. In the United States, Senator Bernie Sanders is t
    Read More
  • The US FAST Act: a job left unfinished
    April 4, 2016
    US roads and bridges are crumbling at an alarming rate as state governments wring their hands over the increasingly scarce money for repairs. Enter the FAST Act. But is it enough? US state transportation department officials, as well as highway contractors and operators, breathed a sigh of relief in December. For months the highways infrastructure sector waited anxiously to see where the necessary money for road projects would come from. For several years, the Highways Trust Fund – the usual way of paying f
    Read More
  • Economic gains from widening the A453 in Nottingham, England
    August 12, 2014
    Work is well underway on turning a busy just over 11km two-lane link road from the city of Nottingham to Junction 24 of the M1 in Leicestershire, England into a four-lane highway. The widened highway will relieve considerable peak-time congestion for travellers to Nottingham, the M1 and East Midlands Airport while also making journeys safer and more reliable. Guy Woodford reports Used by up to 30,000 vehicles a day, the A453 is renowned for congestion at peak travel times. But years of day-to-day commuter a
    Read More

Highlighted Content