The UK has seen just 65 miles of new motorway rolled out in the past decade, despite the number of drivers reaching more than 40 million, with Labour now urged to fix the road problem.

According to reports, the length of UK motorways has increased from 2,265 to 2,330 miles between 2014 and 2024, despite more drivers hitting the road.

This minimal expansion comes as car traffic hit record highs, with the total reaching 330.8 billion vehicle miles in 2023, a two per cent increase from the previous year, with cars and taxis accounting for the vast majority of this traffic, generating 262.9 billion vehicle miles.

But the UK has fallen short of some other European countries that have built thousands of miles of new highways during the same period to accommodate more road users.

Car traffic hit record highs in 2023 with 330.8 billion vehicle miles recorded

Spain has built 6,917 miles, France 3,057 miles, Germany 1,440 miles, Turkey2,082 miles and Poland 1,545 miles, according to data from the EU.

The statistics have now raised questions over why the UK has been so slow to build motorways in recent decades, with just 422 miles added since 1990.

Former Department for Transport civil servant Michael Dnes told the Financial Times that only three new stretches of motorway were opened in that period, on the A1(M) to Newcastle, the M8 near Glasgow and the M90/Queensferry Crossing.

The combined length of these sections totals just 24 miles, according to Dnes's calculations. This raises questions about the other 41 miles reported in official figures

Dnes suggested the discrepancy could be explained by improved accuracy of Ordnance Survey maps, which can now more precisely measure "wiggle" in the roads, marginally extending their recorded length.

Dnes said he was making a serious point that the progress in building motorways in Britain was so sluggish that it could be "swamped by literal rounding errors".

This limited expansion comes as the UK's roads face increasing pressure, with over 40 million people holding driving licences as of 2022.

According to statistics, more than 68 per cent of people in the UK drive their car to work, while only 11 per cent use the railway.

The need for more roads follows more drivers getting frustrated with the UK’s often congested roads, which struggle to accommodate the growing number of vehicles.

Edmund King, president of the AA motoring organisation, said successive Governments had backed "smart" motorways "to the detriment of actually improving the network".

Smart motorways are sections of road where traffic flow is managed by adjusting speed limits and utilising the hard shoulder as a running lane.

King said that, in practice, "they don't work as one-third of drivers don't use the inside lane" for fear of broken vehicles ahead.

He added sudden lane closures could cause more congestion than on a regular highway, noting £900million has been spent upgrading "badly designed" systems.

The UK has only added 422 miles of motorway road since 1999

One DFT official said Britain had not built many motorways in recent years because successive Governments had "prioritised enhancements to the existing motorway network".

Another official said the UK's motorway system was more "mature" than other much larger European countries, having grown rapidly in the 1950s and 60s and therefore less in need of expansion.

Noble Francis, economics director at the Construction Products Association, said: "Anyone who travels on the roads in the UK knows that we need improvements in both the quality of existing roads and new, additional roads to make travelling easier and quicker."