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One of the main objectives of the government’s £24 billion road-building
programme is to ‘assist economic growth by reducing transport costs’.

But a report produced for Greenpeace by John Whitelegg, a geographer
at the Lancaster-based environmental consultants Eco-Logica, says there
is no evidence to support the government’s belief.

Whitelegg says that if the government is right there ought to be more
jobs being chased by fewer people in towns that are close to major roads
than those which are more distant. In fact, he says, in the 34 areas around
Britain he has studied, there is no difference at all.

Whitelegg says: ‘Just as transport costs are no barrier to a highly
organised Japanese manufacturer breaking into the UK market, so are they
irrelevant for a manufacturer . . . in west Wales seeking to break into
a new market in Milan or Frankfurt.’