§ 11. Mr. CallaghanTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the costs of traffic congestion to British businesses. [4012]
§ Mr. WattsThere is no generally accepted definition of congestion costs, and my Department does not publish estimates.
§ Mr. CallaghanI thank the Minister for that answer, but is he aware that, according to Confederation of British Industry estimates, congestion on the M25 costs businesses £1 billion and nationally it costs them £19 billion? What will the Government do to alleviate the worries of the CBI and the nation?
§ Mr. WattsWe are aware of the parts of the network that suffer congestion and our well-targeted trunk road programme is designed to relieve the most severe congestion points. We are also applying modern technology to enable us to manage the network better, part of which will be the strategy that I announced last Monday for the development, under the private finance initiative, of regional traffic control centres. That will allow for the strategic management of motorways and trunk roads over a much broader area.