Parliamentary under secretary of state at the Department for Transport Andrew Jones has highlighted the government's commitment to help make the UK a more productive nation and stated that building more new roads will play a key role in achieving this aim.

He made his comments as part of an address to this month's New Civil Engineer UK Roads Conference 2015, which took place in London last Thursday (July 9th).

The event was held at the Victoria Park Plaza and was attended by an array of the nation's top engineers and representatives from across the spectrum of construction and development.

Mr Jones stated that the state of the nation's infrastructure is one of the biggest hindrances to enhanced productivity and this is an issue that now needs to be tackled head-on.

"Whenever a lorry-load of components fails to arrive on time because of congestion, whenever a business chooses not to open an office in a new city because they know it will mean staff spending hours a day in slow moving traffic … that’s the effect of our poor infrastructure on our productivity," he argued.

The minister added that, if nothing is done to address current issues surrounding UK transport infrastructure, by 2040 up to one-quarter of all time drivers spend on the roads will be the activity of sitting motionless in congestion.

Investing in major transport network improvements is therefore a priority for the coming years and is a process that will not only help individuals to get from A to B that much easier, but will also bolster the economy and help to create a more productive future for the nation as a whole.