Transport Programme Expenditure Plans (Hansard, 20 July 1998)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Baroness Hayman)

We are today announcing, in conjunction with the publication of our Integrated Transport White Paper, plans to revitalise local and public transport. An extra £1.8 billion of funds will be made available for local transport, bus services, road maintenance and railways.

The table below 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. They 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:

£700 million more for local authorities to establish 150 new local transport plans and to restore cuts in maintenance of their principal roads;
£300 million 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 £50 billion for rural transport;
more than £300 million additional resources for the rail industry (including support for the Channel Tunnel Rail link) on top of the annual subsidy of over £1 billion 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 WA 79 Investment Fund and the Rail Passenger Partnership Scheme;
over £400 million 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 £365 million additional resources for this year and next. The plans will allow £7 billion 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, who are contractually committed to maintaining service levels and improving performance while receiving less subsidy. All these savings taken together amount to £1.9 billion over three years.

More details of how extra spending on the trunk and motorway network will be targeted will be given when the roads review is published.

£ millions
	1998–99 Budget	1999–2000 Plans	2000–01 Plans	2001–02 Plans
Programme area within Departmental Expenditure Limit:
Motorway 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
¹ Bus fuel duty rebate, rural bus grants and concessionary bus fares for the elderly.
² Includes 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.