The UK economy is losing an estimated £11 billion a year due to downtime suffered because of poor internet connections.

The figure was outlined in new research by IT services business Daisy Group, which also found that the average worker lose 38 hours each year to the problem.

Tellingly, nearly four in 10 respondents said their home internet is faster than work, while 10% admitted having looked for other jobs during periods of IT downtime.

Jan Wielenga, product manager for data networks at Daisy Group, said too many businesses were relying on basic broadband connections that are meant for residential use.

"These are the businesses that struggle to cope with the high-bandwidth demands of software and apps that workers use,” she said.

“It is simply unacceptable for businesses that rely heavily on the internet to experience periods of downtime, particularly at a time when fibre and dedicated ethernet connections have never been more affordable and available.

“The internet going down or running slowly for 44 minutes per week doesn’t sound much, but the result of any loss of productivity is that businesses can suffer.”

In the Budget this week, the chancellor George Osborne promised to invest in the UK’s super-fast broadband infrastructure as well as the so-called ‘internet of things’.

"This is the next stage of the information revolution, connecting up everything from urban transport to medical devices to household appliances," he said.

In other findings from the Daisy Group research, six in 10 people admitted they browsed smartphones for non-work activities during downtime.

It said the average downtime of 38 hours a year, multiplied by the number of UK workers using the internet in their jobs and the average wage of £13 per hour, combines to make £11 billion in total loses.

The government’s SuperConnected Cities programme offers businesses in 22 cities across the UK access to a grant of up to £3,000 to upgrade broadband connections.

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