British transport failings cost businesses £15bn a year: BCC

The shortcomings of Britain's transport infrastructure are costing UK businesses at least £15 billion a year, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has said.

According to the BCC survey, only 10% of companies were convinced that the transport system met their business needs and just 2% believed that the government's proposals, announced in the Summer of 2003, would provide an "effective solution" to the transport problems holding their businesses back.

The road network was the business transport mode of choice with 84% of companies identifying roads as "essential" to their businesses, and 99% depended on roads for day-to-day functions. And 50% of businesses called for urgent increases to road capacity were a business priority over and above investment in rail.

Businesses felt that their ability to grow, either in an existing location or elsewhere, was negatively affected by the UK's transport infrastructure – 39% of companies felt that the infrastructure around their current location limited their growth potential and 56% of companies said that "inadequate local transport networks" were a deciding influence on choosing a business location.

The BCC's Director General, David Frost, said: "The UK's crumbling transport infrastructure is holding back British business and there is little confidence in the government's ability to deliver significant improvement. We cannot afford to lose £15 billion every year because of it."

He added: "Transport cannot continue to be the hidden policy issue: we need a strong debate on how to solve this problem and the Chambers will play a central role in it."

Loss of 'man-hours' due to the poor transport infrastructure was the most common problem for 84% of companies, with 37% saying that lost time had a significant impact on their business.

The survey also found that 58% of companies welcomed plans to increase road capacity announced in July 2003.

An independent market research company randomly selected a sample of the BBC's 135,000 members for the survey. Of the 2,000 questionnaires returned: 68% of respondents employ between 1-49 staff; 4% employ over 1,000 staff; and 53% had a turnover that exceeded £1 million, with only 6% turned over under £50,000.

(gmcg)