Manufacturers demand better roads and bigger airports

The plea comes on the back of a new survey published today by the manufacturers' organisation EEF, showing the potential threat from the UK's stretched infrastructure to business competitiveness and hitting export targets. EEF head of business environment policy Roger Salomone believes that decades of political dithering have "left Britain in the slow lane" in developing its infrastructure and says that the government's forthcoming transport strategy is an opportunity to address this. "Government must reassess its investment priorities, act faster on major issues like airport capacity and take the politics out of infrastructure by setting up an independent commission," he said. "In particular, the road network is the backbone of the economy but, it has been neglected. We are now feeling the ill effects, with the majority of firms reporting that the state of the nation's roads is significantly increasing their operating costs. Investment should be targeted at shovel-ready maintenance projects and bringing forward upgrades to heavily congested arteries. "Furthermore world-class air links are critical to export-led growth and attracting inward investment. To keep up with the competition we need investment across the board, in Heathrow and in regional airports. Maintaining our status as a global aviation hub is critical to our international standing and expanding runway capacity at Heathrow is the most viable way to secure this."