The Highways Agency has come under fire for failing to take action to ease congestion on Britain's roads.

A new report from the National Audit Office criticised the executive branch of the Department for Transport on Friday.

Parliament's spending watchdog found the Agency has failed to put its most appropriate traffic management technology in all areas of the country and has only recently focused on congestion targets.

It has "been too cautious in introducing or testing out measures more readily used abroad and is behind some of its overseas counterparts in adopting technologies to tackle congestion" the NAO concluded.

Further concerns were expressed over the lack of consultation between roads managers and the organisers of major sporting and entertainment events as well as the "poor" management of trials of new jam-busting techniques.

Auditor general Sir John Bourn said there is scope to ease congestion through policies other than building new roads.

"Road traffic congestion on our motorways and trunk roads is an enduring problem," he said.

"I welcome the Highways Agency’s efforts to attack the problem by making better use of our existing roads.

"In particular, it is aiming to improve roadside information to motorists and to deal more effectively with incidents and accidents.

"I am looking, however, for the Agency to adopt a less risk averse approach. It must not only carry out more effective trials of proposed congestion-reducing measures; but also, if the trials are successful, follow the lead of its overseas counterparts in implementing these technologies more widely on the network."

Lessons

Highways Agency chief executive Archie Robertson said his staff would learn the lessons from the report.

"This report includes some valuable recommendations about improving the Agency's work to tackle congestion," he said.

"We are already taking steps to address some of the issues identified but fully accept that we have more work to do. I will ensure that where recommendations for improvement are safe and appropriate to deliver - we take action.

"In the last 18 months the Agency has moved from being primarily a road builder to a network manager. We are spending £200 million annually installing and maintaining technology on the road network.

"We are also delivering hundreds of safety and congestion busting schemes and considering innovative solutions to our congestion problems. We accept the need to implement projects more quickly to bring benefits to drivers, better manage our trials, target technology effectively and be better prepared for major events.

"We will now be reviewing how we assess pilot projects, are currently targeting our resources for 2005 to reflect congestion priorities and have already taken steps to improve traffic management around major events."

And Liberal Democrat transport spokesman John Thurso said the report was "a real blow to the 'tarmac Tories' argument for trying to build our way out of congestion".

"New roads are not the answer," he said. "They are environmentally damaging, very expensive and have been proven to create even more traffic and congestion not less.

"In the long term, the real challenge is to move from indiscriminate taxation of car ownership towards targeted taxation of car use through road user charging. Motorists should have fair tax, not fuel tax."