Bristol and Belfast are the most congested cities in the UK, a new report by satellite navigation specialist TomTom has revealed.

Many logistics firms would have thought that London was the most gridlocked metropolis in the country, but this is not the case.

The figures showed that the average journey in Belfast takes 32.1 per cent longer than it would if cars, vans and trucks moved freely, while heavy traffic forces motorists in Bristol to spend 31 per cent longer in their vehicles.

London was third in the standings, closely followed by Leeds/Bradford, Nottingham, Manchester and Sheffield.

Congestion costs the logistics industry billions of pounds a year and it is a major concern to see so many of the nation's major cities being ground to a halt.

TomTom's head of traffic Ralf-Peter Schafer hopes that the government will use these statistics to make more informed decisions on where congestion reducing measures are needed the most.

"Our traffic database contains over six trillion data measurements. This helps us determine which routes are the least busy and what times of day are best," he remarked.