Britain’s economy is threatened by its overloaded transport system, business bosses have warned. Transport delays are hitting business efficiency as well as stressing workers and will only get worse, said a report.

The business leaders' group, CBI said many British businesses had already tackled the problem themselves with more flexible working and altered delivery schedules or logistics, but 93% now believe this is not enough to solve the problems.

The CBI calls for the government to spend £1 billion from capital reserves over the next two years and wants the cash spent on road and rail projects. Bosses also demanded a £60 billion injection to take spending in the next decade to £300 billion.

A CBI survey of businesses and their staff, out today, underscores transport's vital importance to companies and employees. But it reveals widespread dissatisfaction with the nation's infrastructure, and expectations that things will deteriorate further.

Fifty-one per cent believe the reputation of the UK as a place to do business is being significantly harmed by transport problems, whilst 48 per cent said their company's own reputation has suffered. Sixty-three per cent of companies in the survey said they expected the transport system to get worse in the next five years compared to only 15 per cent who think it will improve.

Forty-eight per cent of companies said that transport problems were having a substantial impact on their profitability, 40 per cent said their business' growth was significantly affected, and 33 per cent said the problems were having a notable impact on investment in their company.

The CBI believes the minimum needed to deliver improvements over the next decade is £300 billion of public and private investment. This is clearly a challenge, it warns, but comes after decades of under-investment. Over the last 25 years Germany has invested two-thirds more per person on transport than the UK and France spends half as much more.

Sir Digby Jones, director-general of the CBI, said: "Although transport spending has risen in recent years, there are decades of under-investment to deal with and it is clear that business still finds it far too difficult to get its goods to market and its people to work."

"Companies, of all sizes and sectors, rely on an integrated transport network to keep the wheels of business turning. We should all make more efficient use of transport - but unless we invest more to renew and upgrade the network, the economy cannot reach its full potential. But money alone is not enough. We also need reform to the decrepit planning regime, which is still stuck in the 1940s - so that new projects can actually get built."