§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether it is the case that for 1993–94, £2,257,000,000 of taxpayer's money is to be spent on enhancing the motorway network while British Rail and London Underground are being allowed to borrow on the market; and whether such a transport policy is compatible with the Government's aims of "ensuring closer integration between transport and land use planning" and "ensuring that public transport alternatives are explicitly considered", to which they committed themselves in their March 1992 response to the SACTRA Report and with the doctrine of "sustainable development" concerning which the Department of Environment has recently been consulting.
The Earl of CaithnessIn 1993–94 planned expenditure on construction and maintenance of the national roads network is £2.1 billion. We are supporting high levels of investment in public transport—around£2.6 billion in 1993–94. All external funding for London Transport is in the form of grant. Funding British Rail is a combination of grant and loans from the National Loans Fund.
The objectives of the roads programme are to assist economic growth by reducing transport costs, improve the environment by removing through traffic from towns and villages and enhance road safety. These objectives are compatible with the commitments made in response to the SACTRA Report and the principle of sustainable development.