The Government should abandon its local road pricing push through the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) and focus on long-term investment in public transport, according to the Centre for Cities think-tank.
A new Centre for Cities report urges the Government to replace congestion TIF after the next general election with a public-private urban transport investment fund, which would enable long-term investment at no extra cost to the Treasury. It estimates this fund could raise up to £4bn for public transport investment in its initial phases.
Whitehall should ‘call it a day’ on congestion TIF by the end of 2009, if there are no takers, and safeguard the £1bn pot for the fund.
Despite supporting local road pricing in principle, Centre for Cities has concluded that the Government’s existing approach will not work in the current economic and political climate.
It cites the extent of public opposition to local charging, culminating in the overwhelming public ‘No’ vote for Greater Manchester’s plans, which the think-tank had strongly supported.
‘But the results of the 2008 referendum show the depth of public antipathy, and make it difficult for other TIF cities to win the support of their residents,’ it said. The Government’s local road pricing strategy was made ‘even more unrealistic’ by the impact of the recession on cities and consumers. ‘And the remaining unspent funds are conspicuous at a time when money is in short supply in Treasury coffers.’
A dedicated urban transport investment fund – with deposits from the Department for Transport, member cities and the private sector – would loan out resources to member cities seeking to undertake ‘properly planned’ transport infrastructure projects. Repayments of the loans, alongside further injections of capital from investors, would replenish the fund. It calls on the next government to legislate for the creation of accelerated development zones, which cities could then use to access urban transport investment fund resources for large-scale public transport projects.
But, transport minister, Paul Clark, told Surveyor: ‘There are local authorities still actively applying for TIF, and we are waiting to see what happens there.’
• Keeping the wheels from falling off: Why England needs a new urban transport investment fund.
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