Annual 2.25% rise for DfT but rail overshadows local transport

15 October 2007

The Department for Transport is to receive a 2.25% real-terms annual increase in funding until 2018/19, with much of the spending directed at Crossrail and the rail network.

Chancellor Alistair Darling said investment in transport would rise to £14.5bn a year by 2010, but money for local and regional transport would effectively remain unchanged at £1.3bn a year until 2010/11.

However, the amount spent on upgrading the rail network will double over the next two years, ahead of a further £15bn for railways over the following five years. Crossrail, which got the official go ahead last week, will benefit from grants from the DfT of more than £5bn. The Government has also set out a new Public Service Agreement to deliver reliable and efficient transport networks which support economic growth. The PSA 5, outlined in the Comprehensive Spending Review, focuses on enhancing journey times into urban areas, improving reliability on the strategic road network, and addressing capacity and crowding on the rail network.

Richard Wills, president of the County Surveyors’ Society, welcomed these objectives, but warned that ‘routine highways maintenance for the local road network and support for rural public transport may become vulnerable’. The DfT will also provide at least £200M a year for the introduction of a nationwide free bus travel scheme for older and disabled people, beginning on 1 April.

Brian Leverett, leader of Borough of Poole council, said the Government should not settle on a stock figure because it was impossible to predict how much the scheme would set councils back. ‘The Government should pay for government policy. It should make a prediction and then refund local authorities the shortfall at the end of the year,’ he told Surveyor. He estimated that Poole, which had a higher-than-average proportion of over-60s, would receive £600,000 at best, but the scheme could cost up to £1M next year.

Meanwhile, extra money will be provided for strategic road schemes, such as widening the M1 and M25, and the CSR also confirms the Government’s commitment to use Transport Innovation Fund money to support local road-pricing schemes.

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Annual 2.25% rise for DfT but rail overshadows local transport

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