FEATURE
Is Britain being left behind on active travel?
Rebecca Morley looks at the impact Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Autumn Budget and the Spending Review 2021 will have on the cycling and retail sectors
G
lobal economic uncertainty has dominated headlines over the past couple of years, with businesses across all sectors having to adapt to new challenges no one
could have foreseen at the start of 2020. The Autumn Budget and Spending Review (SR) 2021, announced on 27th October, set out the Government’s plans to ‘build back better’ as the country now recovers – but what did it promise for the cycling industry? More than £5 billion will be invested over the Parliament in buses and cycling, and the Government is delivering a £5.7 billion investment package over five years for London-style integrated transport settlements in eight English city regions. Local transport links will also be included with investment
in cycling, fulfilling commitments to build hundreds of miles of high-quality cycle lanes across England, provide bike training for children, and a new e-bike support programme. The Budget and SR also provides over £2 billion of investment in cycling and walking over the Parliament to build hundreds of miles of segregated bike lanes and other facilities to improve cyclists’ safety. This includes £710 million of new investment in active travel funding over the next three years.
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“Ring-fenced funding of £2 billion over five years will enable councils to get on with building hundreds of miles of separated cycling routes in both urban and rural areas,” said Cycling UK CEO Sarah Mitchell. “However, it won’t deliver the tens of thousands of miles needed to create the ‘world- class’ network that the Government promised in its ‘Gear Change’ vision document last year. “Meeting the Government’s own targets to double cycling
and increase walking by 2025 will require investment of between £6 to £8 billion. “If England is to have a chance of making this target, local authorities must be able to make up the shortfall and secure additional funding if we’re to ‘build back better’.”
Active travel funding Sustrans’ chief executive Xavier Brice said the charity is ‘very pleased’ that the Government has used the Spending Review to commit to the £2 billion investment in walking and cycling up to 2025.
“This must mark the start of long-term multi-year funding for active travel to make it easier for everyone to walk and
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