Vital improvements to transport links are being delayed for years because the planning laws cannot cope.

The Get Britain Moving campaign, launched by the British Chambers of Commerce today, says infrastructure is ‘crumbling under pressure’ and damaging business competitiveness.

The BCC is calling for the government to create an independent planning commission to take decisions on nationally significant infrastructure, such as airports, ports and strategic road networks.

It said that local planning authorities, who take decisions on these projects, were too often swayed by parochial.

The government is considering reforms to the planning system put forward in a white paper in May. Consultation ends on 17 August .