Money left over from the transport innovation fund (TIF) would be transferred to a transport carbon-reduction fund under a Conservative Government, shadow transport secretary, Theresa Villiers, has revealed.
Villiers said the fund would apply to a wide range of schemes to encourage sustainable transport and reduce emissions, without a demand for congestion charging. It would be open to local authorities and voluntary sector organisations such as Sustrans, as well as joint bids from both.
‘While we would honour the commitments from the TIF that we inherit from the present government, under a Conservative Government the rest of the [annual] £200M congestion charge strand would become a transport carbon-reduction fund,’ she told a recent transport conference.
Bureaucracy involved with bidding for the funding would be reduced. ‘We would aim for a proportionate approach so that those applying for smaller sums have fewer hoops to jump through than those seeking funds for large-scale projects,’ she said.
But Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat spokesman, said the proposal would have minimal impact. ‘The Tories’ announcement is only reallocating a small amount of existing transport funding,’ he told Surveyor.
‘Creating a modern and sustainable transport system will need far greater investment. Their commitment to sustainable transport is only skin deep, with no new funding proposed and cuts to the rail capital budget planned to pay for high-speed rail.’
However, he agreed the strict rules around TIF ‘should be loosened to allow local authorities to put forward schemes that suit their area’. The Government told Greater Manchester there would be no ‘plan B’ after residents rejected its TIF bid in December.
Villiers also pledged to reform NATA, the Department for Transport’s cost-benefit analysis for appraising the value of transport projects, which currently discriminates ‘against the very behaviour we should be trying to encourage’. She added: ‘We need to scrap the perverse rule which marks down a transport scheme which promotes a shift from driving and on to public transport.’
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