Announced by Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, the move sees the Government invest in more than 100 new road schemes over this parliament and next, including 84 newly announced schemes.

Over 1,300 new lane miles will be added by schemes being delivered over the next parliament on motorways and trunk roads, tackling congestion and fixing some of the most notorious and longstanding problem areas on the network.

This includes £1.5bn of investment to add an extra lane onto key motorways to turn them into smart motorways, boosting connectivity between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Yorkshire.

And the scheme will also see £300m environmental fund that will create new charge points for low emission vehicles every 20 miles across the road network.

Patrick McLoughlin said: ‘Today I am setting out the biggest, boldest and most far-reaching roads programme for decades. It will dramatically improve our road network and unlock Britain’s economic potential.

‘Roads are key to our nation’s prosperity. For too long they have suffered from under-investment.

‘This government has a long term plan to secure the country’s future and this £15bn roads programme is demonstration of that. Better roads allow us to travel freely, creating jobs and opportunities, benefiting hardworking families across the country.

‘Spending during the next parliament on England’s roads network will be boosted further by maintenance funding worth more than £10bn across the local and national road network.’

New projects announced today include:

South west: A £2bn plan to dual the entire A303 and A358 to the south west, including a tunnel at Stonehenge.

North East: A £290m spend to complete the dualling of the A1 all the way from London to Ellingham.

North West & Yorkshire: Completion of the smart motorway along the entire length of the M62 from Manchester to Leeds, together with improvements to transpennine capacity from Manchester to Sheffield.

North west: 12 projects will improve access to major international gateways.

South East: funding £350 million of improvements to the A27 along the south coast.

East of England: investing £300 million to upgrade the east-west connection to Norfolk, by dualling sections of the A47 and improving its connections to the A1 and A11.

London and the south east: improvements to one-third of the junctions on the entire M25.

Midlands: improving the M42 to the east of Birmingham, improving the connectivity to Birmingham airport, the National Exhibition Centre, the local enterprise zone, and pave the way for the new High Speed 2 interchange station.

RAC chief engineer David Bizley said: ‘Today’s announcement is to be applauded as a victory for common sense and a clear blueprint for investment in England’s strategic road network which will deliver long-term benefits for all road users and for the UK economy.

‘The strategy is primarily aimed at improving the existing network with only a small minority of schemes involving new routes and in this way, environmental impact is minimised. The announcement of 127 high-grade projects across England including 400 additional miles of Smart motorway and the upgrading of major stretches of the most heavily used A-routes to ‘Expressway’ status is great news. This will deliver significant improvements to journey times, reliability and user experience for businesses, commuters and family motorists.

‘The challenge for the vast majority of road users who will benefit from these schemes is to secure the commitment of the next government, to ensure that that they are delivered on time and within budget and that the strategy does not become just another set of empty promises.

‘Another concern for motorists must be that without matching the investment in the strategic network by an equally bold investment in local roads, strategic roads could become ‘roads to nowhere’. With current pressure on budgets, local authorities cannot afford to deal with the £12bn backlog in road maintenance and greater support from central government is essential.

‘Local roads account for 97% of the road network and most journeys start and end on them and their maintenance is the number one transport spending priority for a majority of motorists, who contribute over £40bn to the Treasury from motoring taxes every year.’