The MP for North Herefordshire is calling for higher speed limits on motorways to help people get to work faster, saying it could boost productivity.

Conservative former shadow minister Sir Bill Wiggin told a debate in the House of Commons that the M50 – which runs through parts of Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, and Herefordshire – would be “the perfect motorway” to test increasing the speed limit.

When he was Chancellor, George Osborne, said he would introduce such a change in England, but the Government shelved the idea in 2022.

The Shropshire Star newspaper quotes Sir Bill telling the Commons: “In order to increase productivity we ought to ensure that people get to work in and around the country faster.

“Increasing speed limits on motorways would help to do this.”

Citing the lack of evidence of the safety implications, he said: “We need to test and trial increased speed limits in line with safer cars and better brakes.

“And I suggest that an excellent place to test this would be the M50. This is the perfect motorway to try to increase the speed limit. It is short, safe, and a truly excellent motorway where we could easily monitor the safety of a higher speed limit.”

Mr Wiggin also called for money raised from Vehicle Excise Duty to be ringfenced for spending on roads.

(Picture – Wikipedia, credit By Bob Embleton, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=302815_