Friends of the Earth’s campaigns director Liz Hutchins said: “Doesn’t Philip Hammond read the news? Earlier this month UN scientists warned that we only have a dozen years to prevent catastrophic climate change.

“Yet rather than investing in a low-carbon economy, the chancellor is gearing up to create more pollution that wrecks our climate and damages our health.

“We could be a world leader in building a cleaner, safer future, but government climate policy seems to be stuck in reverse.”

Sian Berry, co-leader of the Green party, said: “’It’s very disappointing to see this government announce over and over again a ‘new’ roads programme that will just make traffic problems worse.

“Building new roads just creates new traffic. Real, green investment in our future would boost walking and cycling, green energy and local public transport.”

Simon Alcock, of environmental charity ClientEarth, said: “Emergency measures to protect our children from traffic pollution would cost £153m, which is a drop in the ocean compared with the numbers the government is allocating to roads.

“Ministers seem unwilling to find money to protect children from traffic pollution around schools but are happy to spend billions on roads.”

The Treasury said the roads fund would help “make journeys quicker and easier for millions of commuters across the country, while boosting productivity and road safety. Congestion costs UK households over £30 billion every year and the equivalent of more than 100 million working days could be lost, between now and 2040, unless action is taken.”

Councils will receive £420m for potholes and repairs and to keep bridges open. A further £150m will help improve local junctions.

The government’s Transforming Cities Fund will be extended by £680m to support local transport projects such as cycling networks, new buses and trams.

The chancellor is also expected to announce an extra £90m to trial “next-generation” methods of transport, potentially including self-driving shuttle services and electric bikes.

RAC spokesman Simon Williams told The Independent: “It’s great news for motorists. We know from research that there has been a big increase in dependency on the car so roads are important for the country.

“We found 59 per cent of drivers said they would be very keen to take public transport if it was better, but it’s not as affordable, comfortable or frequent as it should be, and many people in rural areas have not choice of how to get to work.”

He said motorists were suffering too much damage to their vehicles from potholes, which also posed a safety risk to others when drivers swerved to avoid the holes.

A Treasury spokesman said the government was not boosting roads in isolation but was also improving air quality.

He said: “We need to repair our roads and ensure the right roads are in the right places, and it’s part of our mix of strategies.”