Preface by the Secretary of State CM 6234
This White Paper looks at the factors that will shape travel, and our transport networks, over the next 30 years. And it sets out how the Government will respond to those pressures, safeguarding our economic and social well being and our environment.
The challenge we face is compounded by decades of under-investment in our transport infrastructure. Successive Governments have failed to devote sufficient resources to maintaining and modernising our transport network. Meanwhile, ageing and over-stressed networks have been asked to cope with levels of travel never anticipated when they were designed.
The 10 Year Plan for transport, published in July 2000, began to set this to rights. It marked the beginning of a more strategic approach to transport. And it delivered a long term Government commitment to sustained increases in transport spending, ending stop-start funding and short term planning.
The Plan is delivering new capacity on our road network, with over 80 schemes in the targeted programme of major projects, including the widening of the M1 and M25. We have invested in the rail network, delivering projects such as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and the West Coast Main Line upgrade, while renewing 800 miles of track last year. And we have increased total Government capital support for local authorities from £650 million in 2000-01 to £1.9 billion in 2004- 05.
With the publication of The Future of Air Transport last year, we have also set a strategic framework for the development of aviation over the next 30 years. This White Paper takes the opportunity to extend an equivalent long term framework across the rest of transport. It sets out how we will respond to the challenges we face. And it sets out how we will reshape the challenges we face - we must be smarter than predict and provide, managing people's need to travel and respecting our environment.
The strategy is built around three key themes.
- Sustained investment over the long term. The spending review settlement honours this Government's commitment to deliver sustained improvements to transport networks. It raises planned spending over the next three years from 10.4 billion this year to over £12.8 billion by 2007-08. And that higher level of spending will grow in real terms (by 2.25 per cent each year) through to 2015. Meanwhile, the other reforms we are putting in place will ensure that each pound of investment works harder for the British taxpayer.
- Improvements in transport management. We will reorganise the rail industry to improve performance, drive down costs and get better value from public spending. We will legislate to put in place a structure where Government sets the strategy and controls public expenditure. Better traffic management will ease congestion of our road network. And we will lock in the benefits of new capacity, introducing some tolling and High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes where they make sense.
- Planning ahead. We cannot build our way out of the problems we face. Government will lead the debate on road pricing, working with stakeholders to establish and explain how and when pricing might provide the reliability and standards road users want. We are also committed to sharing decision-making with regional and local stakeholders to ensure that transport decisions are taken alongside those for housing and economic growth.
Pressures on the transport budget have grown considerably over recent years. The spending settlement addresses these pressures in two ways. First, with more money. But it also sets in hand measures that bring costs back under control and ensures that we use the resources we have smarter and better.
We will promote better decision-making by publishing long term guidelines for the level of spending on transport within each region. This will make more transparent investment choices at national, regional and local levels.
We will give our delivery partners incentives to develop and deploy smarter, innovative, local and regional transport strategies. We will work alongside forward looking authorities and areas, to help put in place packages of measures which tackle these problems. A new Transport Innovation Fund will support the costs of such packages. It will support innovative mechanisms which raise new funds locally. And it will ensure that the contribution some regional and local schemes can make to our productivity is reflected in their funding.
The Government's commitment to sustained real terms public spending increases for transport builds on the previous commitment, providing both additional funding over the remainder of the original 10 Year Plan period and extending our commitment to increased funding for transport to 2015. This sustained programme will do much to address the backlog of under-investment inherited from previous Governments.
However, we do not underestimate the scale of the challenge. Transport investment is a high priority for the UK to support economic growth and provide decent and reliable journeys. We will therefore work with all interested parties to see how we can move further and faster. In doing so, we will need to be satisfied about affordability; that costs have been brought under control; and that the necessary improvements have been made in efficiency and value for money.
This strategy not only outlines expenditure plans to 2015, but also sets out our longer term aspirations for the next 30 years. It reaffirms the Government's determination to provide the investment and leadership that will deliver lasting change.
Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP
Secretary of State for Transport
