The chancellor’s Autumn Statement has revealed that the government is set to invest over £1 billion into upgrading the UK’s road network to improve road congestion.

Philip Hammond will commit to spending over £1.3 billion to help ease congestion on the country’s roads.

Included in this investment is £1.1 billion for the upgrade of local roads and a further £220 million for Highways England to tackle “pinch points” on the motorways and major A-road throughout England.

Previously, the treasury said that road congestion is costing the UK economy £13 billion each year and that 100 million working days may be lost by 2040 unless action is taken immediately.
One of the projects set to take place is the £27 million expressway that will connect Cambridge, Oxford and Milton Keynes, which was recommended by the National Infrastructure Commission in last week’s report into East-West transport links.

This was the first part of infrastructure spending that was announced by the government as part of the Autumn Statement.

Reports have suggested that the chancellor may borrow £15 billion to go towards energy, rail, road and other infrastructure schemes.

In September, the chancellor told MPs that the government would focus on “modest and rapidly deliverable investments” as part of the Autumn Statement.

Mr Hammond said: “By investing in our national infrastructure and skills, we can do even better than before; we can improve our historically low levels of productivity and up our game even more.

“For too long, taxpayer-funded investment hasn’t been sufficiently targeted on generating economic returns for the country. On my watch, it will be.”

Days before the Autumn Statement was released, Hammond said that the UK economy must be “watertight” to cope with “sharp” challenges ahead of Brexit.

Hammond refused to be drawn on his plans, but stressed economic “credibility” was key.