Its ‘Roads to Reality' report, researched by London's Imperial Collage, calls for a mix of road pricing and increased construction.

It also found that car traffic will rise by 37 per cent over the same period, and that a return to 1990's road building levels will be needed to meet the demand.

“The modelling suggests that the Government cannot use the possible future introduction of road pricing as a reason to ignore the need to improve the strategic road network,” said Professor Stephen Glaister, one of the report's authors. “If national road pricing has been put on the back-burner, more urgency is required for intelligent investments decisions now to keep the country moving in the future.” The report claims that although new roads generate some additional traffic, they don't fill up with traffic, take little additional land and would have nominal effects on climate change.