§ Mr. McNultyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on his expenditure plans for transport programmes, pursuant to the publication of the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review. [51805]
§ Mr. PrescottI am today announcing, in conjunction with the publication of our Integrated Transport White Paper, plans to revitalise local and public transport. An extra £1.8bn of funds will be made available for local transport, bus services, road maintenance and railways.
The table shows my Department's current plans to use the resources available for transport programmes.
These plans will secure greatly increased investment in transport infrastructure, through both increases in public spending in areas identified as priorities in our Integrated Transport White Paper and through partnership with the private sector. It will allow local authorities to spend almost twice as much on their transport programmes in 2001–02 as they do now.
Extra public spending on rail services will bring in substantial amounts of private investment, and by removing bottlenecks in the network, real improvements for passengers and freight in support of our objective of reducing car use.
The plans involve:
£700m more for local authorities to establish 150 new Local Transport Plans and to restore cuts in maintenance of their principal roads;£300m more for local bus services. Buses have a major contribution to make to developing more sustainable transport policies. The Government have already allocated this year an extra £50m for rural transport.more than £300m additional resources for the rail industry (including support for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link) on top of the annual subsidy of over £1bn to rail operators for existing franchise contracts. These new resources will allow for extra freight grants, and extra funds to be made available from two new sources—the Infrastructure Investment Fund and the Rail Passenger Partnership Scheme;over £400m extra spending on the trunk road and motorway network with priority given to maintenance of the existing trunk road network and to making better use of it;resources for the new Mayor to pursue an integrated transport strategy for London as soon as the Greater London Authority is set up and to allow the acceleration of various initiatives in the Capital.These plans reflect the reduced demands on public support for the London Underground from 2000–01 as a result of the new public private partnership arrangements. These were announced on 20 March, along with £365m additional resources for this year and next. The plans will allow £7bn of investment to take place in the Underground over the next 15 years. The expenditure plans also take account of the reduced subsidy required for train operating companies, which are contractually committed to maintaining service levels and improving performance whilst receiving less subsidy. All these savings taken together, amount to £1.9 billion over three years. 379W More details of how extra spending on the trunk and motorway network will be targeted will be given when the roads review is published.
£ million 1998–99 Budget 1999–2000 Plans 2000–01 Plans 2001–02 Plans Programme area within Departmental Expenditure Limit: Motorways and trunk roads 1,350 1,407 1,536 1,580 Local transport 523 598 695 987 Support for local buses1 262 313 355 425 Railways (Domestic and International) 1,758 1,569 1,490 1,630 Transport programmes in London2 599 436 128 157 Other transport 186 227 266 261 1Bus fuel duty rebate, rural bus grants and concessionary bus fares for the elderly 2Includes London Transport (and Croydon Tramlink) and other transport programmes currently administered by the Government Office for London. Excludes spending in London on trunk roads and motorways by the Highways Agency and support for transport capital expenditure by the Boroughs from the local transport settlement. Includes no provision for London Underground from 2000–01, from when a PPP is planned to be in place