Year: 2008

According to Towards Better Transport, traffic congestion is now endemic, affecting not just large cities but also the core motorway network and small towns. It currently costs the UK economy in the region of £20bn per year, a figure set to rise significantly in the coming years, harming our future economic competitiveness and growth.

“Sharing the proceeds of growth” has always been a nice, if also a little vague formula. It does not set the degree to which growth should be shared between tax cuts and public spending. Unfortunately – and almost by definition – it becomes an impossible task if there is no or only little growth and consequently not much to share.