Department for Transport policy statement

Towards a Sustainable Transport System

The Department for Transport (DfT) has published today (Tuesday30th October) a major new statement on national transport policy. The document Towards a Sustainable Transport System sets out a new approach to policy making and investment priorities that the Department will follow in future, based largely on the recommendations made by Sir Rod Eddington in his transport study and by Sir Nicholas Stern in his report on the economics of climate change, both published last year. It also changes the way that representative bodies, such as FTA, are to be involved in future policy making.

Overview
The role and needs of freight, logistics and supply chains receive a high profile in the document although these are couched in language that stresses the contribution that freight makes to the economy. The Department?s number one priority is to ensure that transport maximises the competitiveness and productivity of the economy. This declaration will give the efficiency of supply chains and the freight transport sector a welcome and enduring priority in future national transport planning and investment. As the champion of the role played by supply chains in the economy FTA has made this justification for freight transport for many years and welcomes the change in priority. However, there remain two major obstacles to delivery of the improvements needed: the required funding and the necessary planning permission.

Investment
The Comprehensive Spending Review, announced by the Chancellor on 8 October, allocated £86 billion to transport investment in the six financial years to 2013/14. Today?s transport statement says that this will be allocated to the long list of road and rail spending plans already budgeted, as well as to recently announced schemes, including:

·         expansion of the successful hard shoulder running scheme piloted on the M42 (known as Advanced Traffic Management)

·         enhancement of rail routes serving three major ports so that they can accommodate 9ft 6ins containers

·         additional funding for enforcement of UK safety standards on visiting goods vehicles

Further announcements are expected and FTA has issued a list of the Quick Wins that the Government should deliver before 2014. We shall continue to press for delivery of these and monitor allocation of this money.

For schemes commencing after 2014 the Department is adopting a new approach, based on the recommendations in the Eddington study. The main targets for investment will be:

  Inter urban corridors - road and rail links between major towns and cities

  Congested town and city centres - where most people live and work

  International gateways - ports and airports handling export and import traffic

Each of these has major significance for freight operations and FTA has already identified the inter-urban road and rail trade routes that require expansion; the business priorities for improving deliveries in urban areas and the road and rail routes that require capacity improvements to adequately serve expected growth in imports through ports and airports over the next 10 years.

Future investment projects will be reviewed by defining the policy goals that are sought; identifying the challenges and barriers to their achievement; considering all policy options across all of the modes; and prioritising the options by value for money. This is a more rigorous and transparent system than currently used and could remove much of the ?politics? from transport spending decisions in future.

Future projects will be appraised based on their contribution to five broad policy goals that the Government is seeking to promote.

·         Productivity and Competitiveness (the Eddington agenda)

·         Climate Change (the Stern agenda)

·         Safety, Security and Health (covers accident-risk, terrorism and crime, impacts on health of air/water pollution, health benefits of cycling/walking)

·         Quality-of-Life (covers positive impacts on personal mobility and range of goods, negative impacts on noise, landscape, etc, and quality of service)

·         Equality of Opportunity (covers the full range of ways in which people?s prospects can be altered by their level of access to transport)

Efficient freight transport and supply chain management make major contributions to each of these objectives and it will be possible to sustain a much stronger case for investment in freight-related projects under these new priorities. The Department is seeking industry input to defining the challenges and barriers to achieving these goals, a process that FTA has already embarked upon.