Converting the motorway hard shoulder into a permanent driving lane is not a safe solution to Britain’s increasingly congested roads, MPs comprising the Transport Select Committee have recommended.

Around 300 miles of motorway could see their hard shoulder converted into a permanent traffic lane before 2025 under 30 schemes currently being proposed.

However, the Transport Select Committee has called for plans for ‘all lane running’ to be dropped amid safety concerns.  

Committee chair Louise Ellman MP said that the permanent loss of the hard shoulder would be “a radical change and an unacceptable price to pay for [congestion] improvements”.

Traffic levels are forecast to increase by up to 60 per cent by 2040, and while Ellman acknowledged that something had to be done, she refused to accept that all lane running was “the safe, incremental change the Department wants us to think it is”.

Sections of the M1 and M25 open their hard shoulder temporarily during peak times or instances of considerable congestion - commonly known as smart motorways - but Ms Ellman said that the government would need to prove that doing so permanently wouldn’t compromise safety.

The MP cited “worryingly high levels of non-compliance with red x signals”, used to notify a closed lane, combined with unacceptably low levels of public awareness and confidence about using smart motorways.