Traffic lights introduced on motorways have made congestion worse despite Highways England spending £317m on schemes, a government report has revealed.

The report by Highways England showed that a pinch point programme to tackle particularly congested areas of road often resulted in faster rush hour journeys, but slower journeys at other times of the day.

Overall, journey times were slower than before the money was spent to try and ease congestion, improve safety and boost growth in local economies.

Highways England believed the slower overall journey times were mainly caused by the introduction of traffic lights, with 44% of the schemes introducing the new signalling.

The RAC described the findings as "very disappointing".

There were 119 congested areas of road that received a share of the £317m funding, announced in the 2011 Budget.

The report looked at the first-year impact of 54 of the 119 schemes carried out on England's motorways and major A roads. Nearly half of the schemes with an aim to cut journey times failed to achieve that goal.

The report concluded that it must consider the impact of projects "across all 168 hours of the week, not just the 10-30 peak hours".

Future schemes must "better consider how to mitigate the downsides while maintaining the upsides", the document added.