All those issues are part of the reason for the support which has been given by many organisations to such measures. Among those organisations is the Confederation of British Industry. It has indicated that it views the Bill as acting to focus attention on the need for action and investment to tackle transport problems and says that this Bill will be welcomed. It reports that individual companies have to bear increased costs due to extra time, lower reliability and higher fuel consumption. Employees bear the costs of stress and time wasted by sitting in traffic jams.
Staff travelling to and from work is an area which has a knock-on effect on business.
In the report, the CBI suggests setting objectives and targets at an individual business level. That is very much the thrust of this Bill in a slightly different context. It imposes a duty on councils which are traffic authorities to assess levels of local road traffic and to make forecasts. Councils are to make reports to specify targets to reduce local traffic or to reduce the rate of growth of local traffic. Authorities are to have regard to guidance by the Secretary of State.