British roadways are of a similar quality to those found in Namibia or Puerto Rico, according to a report by the World Economic Forum.
The Swiss non-profit organisation created the 2015 Global Competitiveness report, which gives a score to countries based on a number of factors, including infrastructure and road quality.
Britain managed to just limp into the top 30, coming in 30th place with an overall score of 5.2 that’s closer to the scores given to developing countries and on par with both Namibia and Puerto Rico.
Namibia and Puerto Rico have an average gross national income of £3,810 and £12,468 respectively according to figures from the World Bank, compared to the UK’s figure of £27,052.
Likewise, the vast majority of other wealthy countries, which include France, Spain, Germany and the United States, all rank far above Britain in the World Economic Forum’s study.
Spending on British infrastructure has fallen by around £15bn from its peak thanks to major cuts imposed in the early years of the Coalition government. However, the new government has pledged £15bn boost to upgrade infrastructure networks by 2020.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said that the UK’s roads have suffered from underinvestment and that the cash boost would be the “biggest, boldest, and most far-reaching roads programme for decades”.
Yesterday’s budget announcement outlined a range of changes to the VED road tax system, whereby from April 1 2017 all vehicle tax income will go towards road maintenance.
Chancellor George Osborne revealed that revenue from VED is currently falling, as increasing numbers of new cars becoming tax exempt as a result of improved emissions standards.
“Every single penny will go into road investment,” he said. “We need a long term solution to fix Britain’s roads.”
