A cycling advocacy group is calling on the government to give incentives to employers to set up showers for workers who opt to cycle to work.

The Bicycle Advocacy Group said measures needed to be brought in to drum up wider support of cycling as a sustainable form of transport.

It called for ring fencing of as much as 10 per cent of the transport budget (it did not specify how much in real terms) for effective cycling infrastructures that could return as much as 35 times the investment.

Other measures, it said, should include a 50 per cent grant on electric pedelecs bringing them in line with electric cars.

"Other measures linked to the affect of the revised pedelec regulations are for incentives for employers to offer shower-at-work schemes to offset the use of ‘normal’ bicycles by commuters and reducing bicycle helmets to a zero rate of VAT."

The group said it would also like to see fiscal incentives for commercial deliveries to be made by pedelec ‘cargo-bikes’, which are used in congested cities abroad to avoid the use of large trucks making deliveries in rush hour traffic.

Bicycle commuters should also receive a tax incentive to cycle to work, similar to France, Germany, the UK and other EU states, it said.