Brown commits to ‘sustainable infrastructure’

06 December 2006

Chancellor Gordon Brown has used his pre-Budget report to endorse the findings of the Barker recommendations on land use planning and the Eddington study on future transport investment.
He also used the report to underline a commitment to the Stern review on the economics of climate change to announce plans to raise fuel duty, but said he would use the fiscal system to encourage use of cleaner fuels with the extension of discounts on biofuels.
‘The theme of both the Eddington review on transport and the Barker review on planning flexibility is that we must systematically modernise and improve Britain’s road, rail, housing and civic infrastructure – run down in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s – by investing in a sustainable infrastructure that will contribute to the future prosperity of the country,’ he said.
He promised consultation on plans to set up an independent planning body which would be able to make strategic decisions on planning permission and the location of major infrastructure projects such as roads and waste sites. Brown also said there would be ‘new incentives which will cut the numbers of local authority inspections’, and measures to speed up the release of public sector land and designate more brownfield sites, paving the way for an increase in sustainable housing.
The chancellor said the standard rate of landfill tax would increase by £3 per tonne to £24 per tonne with effect from 1 April, and added that the Government would consider the case for steeper increases in the tax from 2008 onwards, to encourage the diversion of waste from landfill sites.
Overall capital investment is expected to rise from £39bn last year to £60bn by 2011-12, while investment in transport – £4bn in 1997 – would rise to £9.6bn next year, with an updated 10-year spending plan to be included in the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review.
Responding to the report, Brian Berry, head of public policy at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, called for a modal shift towards public transport, cycling and walking, and said the Chancellor’s announcements would have little impact on the existing relationship between land use and transport infrastructure.
However, the Freight Transport Association claimed the increase in fuel duty was a breach of faith with the road freight industry and would increase costs.

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