UK: The government has announced a £4·7bn Local Transport Fund to support projects in smaller cities, towns and rural areas England’s north and Midlands using what it describes as ‘reallocated HS2 funding’.
The fund is for communities which do not benefit from City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements.
On February 26, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said northern England would receive £2·5bn and the Midlands £2·2bn over seven years from April 2025. Rail Business UK notes that the next general election must be held by late January 2025.
The Department for Transport is to publish advice to help local authorities develop ‘ambitious plans’, with examples of projects including new roads, ‘installing or expanding mass transit systems’, filling potholes and refurbishing bus and railway stations.
Responses
Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said the government’s ‘back of a fag packet plan’ announced when the northern section of High Speed 2 was cancelled ’promised extensions to roads that didn’t exist, tram lines that had already been built and reannouncements of projects they promised a decade ago’.
She said Labour would ’work with local leaders, mayors, businesses and unions to deliver a credible and transformative programme of rail and transport infrastructure investment to improve connectivity across the north’.
Labour peer and long-time HS2 critic Tony Berkeley said ‘what is missing from all this chaos is a business case — forecasts of demand for what is left of HS2, for freight (still confidential although produced three years ago), and the all-important regional investment and service that the PM promised’.
Ben Curtis from the Campaign for Better Transport said ‘re-allocating HS2 money to other public transport projects is welcome, but we are disappointed to see funding transferred from a sustainable rail scheme to high carbon, low-return road schemes. Time and time again, research has proven that investing in public transport delivers the greatest return for the taxpayer, whatever metric is used.’
