Transport professionals and economists are warning of tough times ahead following a Budget which deferred key decisions on future investment to next year’s spending review.
Although the Department for Transport was not singled out for cuts by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown's figures suggest its budget will come under intense pressure. He has pencilled in a growth rate of 1.8% above inflation for public expenditure after April 2008. If education, health and other priorities are protected, the rest of government would face real cuts of 0.1% a year, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Highway maintenance had lost out in the last review and was likely to do so again, the County Surveyors’ Society warned. Local road condition had improved following a steady increase in investment from 2000-2004, said ~Matthew Lugg~, chairman of the CSS highway management group. The subsequent spending review had exacerbated a continuing shortfall by freezing allocations.
‘We need greater investment in the transport asset, but we’re still not presenting the case adequately,’ said Lugg. The push to asset management planning was designed to make clear the impact of investment on infrastructure and levels of service. But Whitehall has already started work on the 2007 review. ‘Transport needs urgent investment. We need to see the Chancellor match promises with real commitments,’ agreed CBI director-general Sir Digby Jones. However, he welcomed the Government’s ‘declaration of faith’ in the private-finance initiative and proposals to improve PFI procurement.
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