Business groups are calling for a 30-year national transport plan at the start of a year-long campaign to highlight the under-investment and planning delays they say are damaging Britain’s competitiveness.
Launched by the British Chambers of Commerce, the campaign is backed by the RAC Foundation, the Federation of Small Businesses and fellow members of the Road Users Alliance, which says the battle against congestion is being lost as late-running LTP schemes fail to keep pace with traffic growth.
BCC director-general, David Frost, said funding should be allocated for longer periods than the Treasury’s two or three-year spending cycles, and ministers should make transport a higher priority in next year’s comprehensive spending review. The UK had spent 30% less on transport infrastructure over the past 25 years than its main European competitors.
‘We need a 30-year national framework, controlled by a national strategic transport authority and backed up by short-term deliverables along the way,’ added Frost. According to the RUA, work has yet to begin on many road schemes approved in the first LTP settlements in 2000.
Of the 12 proposed in the east of England, for example, only two had been built, and two were under way – and the cost for the full set was now put at £242M, 40% more than the original estimate.
‘The RUA is absolutely right to say that many of the aspirations in the first round of LTPs have failed to materialise on the ground,’ commented County Surveyors’ Society secretary George Batten.