SOUTHAMPTON is one of the most congested cities in the UK, new figures have revealed.

Time wasted sitting in traffic in the city could end up costing the economy as much as £450 million by 2025.

That’s according to a new report by transport analysts INRIX, which show Southampton to be the 17th worst city in the UK for traffic.

It also names the westbound carriageway of M27 junction five as the area’s worst hotspot.

Southampton business bosses say bottlenecks in the city are having a “huge impact” on the health of commerce in the city.

Giles Semper, acting chief executive of GO! Southampton Business Improvement District (BID), said: “There can be little doubt that existing bottlenecks are having a huge impact on our city’s commercial health.

“Above all we are home to the UK’s number one export port and Europe’s number one cruise terminal – both crucial assets as we head towards a post-Brexit future.

“If people and goods can’t get in and out of our port, we have a huge issue.”

He added that the BID and the Hampshire Chamber Commerce has written to Highways England, urging them to speed up the process of a number of planned improvement schemes.

This includes work on the M27, which is set to be upgraded into a smart motorway between junction four and junction 11.

Work is due to start on the £220 million upgrade this year and is expected to be completed in 2019.

Meanwhile, work is due to start in March this year on a £25 million project to improve the Redbridge Roundabout.

Highways England are also planning a £130 million upgrade of junctions eight and nine of the M27, in the hope of taking Southampton bound traffic off the motorway earlier.

A spokesperson for Highways England said: “Roads play a vital role in keeping the country moving and we are currently delivering £15 billion of improvements to our road network.

“We are delivering a large amount of investment around the Solent area in the coming years which will help cut congestion and improve journeys for drivers across the city.

“These schemes when finished will reduce congestion and improve journey time reliability for the thousands of drivers every day.”

Inside Southampton, city transport bosses say work is ongoing to tackle congestion.

This includes the city council investing £2.3 million of government funding into improving cycling facilities and encouraging more people to cycle or walk to school.

This council is also pushing ahead with plans for ‘Cycle Freeways’, which will provide segregated cycling facilities along some of the city’s busiest road corridors.

In its report, INRIX analysed more than 200,000 traffic jams to identify and rank 45,662 traffic hotspots in 123 major cities in 19 European countries.

In the UK, the company identified and ranked 20,375 traffic hotspots in 21 cities.

The company multiplied the average duration of a traffic jam with its average length and the number of times it occurred in September 2016 and then ranked cities accordingly.

London was by far the most congested city, followed by the likes of Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.

Southampton ranked below cities such as Leicester and Coventry, but it was more congested than Newcastle and Liverpool, according to the data.

INRIX also used the Department for Transport’s value of time to calculate that at the current rate, traffic jams would cost the UK economy by £61.8 billion in the UK by 2025.

Itchen MP, Royston Smith, said he was “very sceptical” of the figure, but added that called on improvements to be made to the city’s pinch points such as Woodmill Bridge.