Kent has emerged top of the heap with a £10M windfall by 2010/11 – two-and-a-half times its average annual provisional allocation, which had been based on the distribution system for LTP-1.
The county’s share also includes a £2M annual boost from Dartford Crossing tolls.
Among the counties, East Sussex picks up £2.5M (76% extra) on top of its planning guideline, while other winners include Cornwall (62%), and Northamptonshire, Staffordshire and West Sussex (each up 54%). Shires which do not gain, generally escape with small reductions in funding for schemes below £5M.
The big losers include unitaries such as Reading, which will see its allocation halved. Other major casualties are York and Swindon (down 38%) and Stoke-on-Trent (30%).
Major conurbations, as expected, fare well, with Tyne & Wear reaping an extra 48% by 2010/11, followed by South and West Yorkshire (up 37% and 31%), and Greater Manchester (21%). But Merseyside will take a £4.8M hit, down 15%.
Regionally, the East Midlands, which has long-claimed it does not get its fair share of the transport cake, does best. It should see funding other than for major schemes rise by 27%, with only Leicester and Rutland losing out.
The Eastern region receives the smallest overall increase of 7%. Thurrock, also boosted by a £2M-a-year tolls surplus, will have its allocation almost tripled to £4M, whereas Luton faces a 25% cut.
By the end of LTP-2, the mets and counties have increased their share of a bigger integrated transport block at the expense of unitaries.
Metropolitan areas’ 33% shares rises to 35%, shires gain a point at 45%, while unitary authorities drop back to 20% from 23% currently. Total funding is set to rise by more than £82M (almost 16%) to £603M.
Phasing the formula quickly – over three years instead of five – means the unitaries lose an extra £17M, with £9.5M going to shires and £7.5M to mets.
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