Commenting on the transport investment strategy announced by the Department for Transport today, Jane Gratton, Head of Business Environment at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:

“Infrastructure projects, both large and small, give business communities across the UK real confidence. A long-term approach to improving productivity and connectivity is welcome but businesses have seen strategies come and go, the real proof comes when they see diggers in the ground.

“Investment in local roads will be particularly well-received by businesses who often express frustration at the capacity and quality of the current system. While ‘A’ roads are of national strategic importance, local areas are best placed to identify how those assets may be enhanced to promote growth opportunities and should be given the flexibility to do so.

“UK businesses want to see progress on major projects such as Heathrow and HS2, but action on smaller schemes such as local road and rail maintenance unlocks access to major cities and create new paths for communities in all parts of the country.

“Businesses will want this strategy to represent additional and better-focused investment to provide the UK with a quality infrastructure system that supports business growth. Transport projects ‘crowd in’ additional investment, generate jobs on site and across supply chains, and support greater connectivity between businesses and their markets, suppliers and customers.”

The next UK Government will have a crucial task ahead in constructing an industrial strategy that will deliver for all of the UK and which will deliver the skills and talents that Scottish businesses need to succeed.

Calling for an integration of the strategy at a Scottish and UK level, Liz Cameron, Chief Executive of Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said:

“All of the political parties going into the General Election talk about a new Industrial Strategy as a key part of their economic agenda for the next Parliament. If this is pursued on a UK basis, then it is vital that it takes full account of the devolved settlement and that action is co-ordinated by the Scottish and UK Governments to ensure that Scottish firms can take full advantage of a national focus on the key drivers of business success.

“Our businesses need an environment that enables them to identify opportunities and respond to them in an agile manner. We need a national industrial strategy to set out measures to improve our infrastructure and connectivity, to widen our access to key skills and talents, to identify actions to incentivise and reward positive behaviours and to ensure that we have the most competitive environment to do business. However any UK strategy must recognise that many of those levers are under the control of the Scottish Government and therefore it must be fully engaged if Scottish businesses are to benefit from the strategy to the fullest extent.

“Getting our plans right for skills and talent must be a priority for the Industrial Strategy. Scotland and the UK continue to lag behind competitor nations in terms of our productivity and we need to restore a focus on ongoing work-based learning and re-skilling of older workers in order to ensure that our businesses have access to the talents they need to grow and succeed. This is particularly important, given the demographics of low unemployment and an aging workforce.

“Once this General Election has been decided, there exists a golden opportunity for the Scottish and UK Governments to co-ordinate their activity as never before, putting politics to one side and focusing on how to build the success of our businesses.”