The CBI's new director general, Digby Jones, has been making the rounds of regional business centres and has come away convinced that what the UK needs as much as anything is better transport.

"Getting our transport system right is now a priority for business," Jones argues. "We need people to be able to get to work safely and cheaply and companies to get their goods to market quickly and efficiently." Consistent complaints in his regional visits, he adds, are poor transport links and excessive congestion.

Though there are a number of success stories - Manchester's metro system, the Black Country Spine Road and London's Jubilee Line extension amongst them - Jones will be making representations to the Government for new initiatives early in the New Year.

In addition to transportation, he will argue that key concerns for business also include the burden of red tape, the need to improve skills and training, and the need to "ensure that the UK takes its proper place in the European single market".

Coincidentally, Bank of England governor Eddie George has, at about the same time, made it clear that monetary policy cannot be tailored to meet the needs of specific UK regions.

In an advance on his earlier let-them-take-aspirin comment, George noted: "Our mandate is in relation to the economy as a whole, but it is not simply because that is our mandate, it is because actually what has been good for the economy has also been good for almost every region of the economy."

Elliott Chase