Benefits "unclear" for £2.3bn spent on active travel by DfT

MPs have criticised the Government’s active travel plans, questioning whether £2.3 billion spent on cycling and walking is delivering any improvement.

In a report published on Friday (November 3), the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) warns that the Government is not on track to meet objectives to increase rates of active travel by 2025.

Furthermore, it says funding cuts made this year by the Department for Transport (DfT) could hold back objectives to increase active travel, including cycling and walking.

Objectives include a doubling of cycling rates, and a six percentage point increase in the proportion of children walking to school.

The report from MPs claims that there has been no sustained increase in cycling rates, and fewer children now walk to school than when targets were set.

In March 2023, DfT announced a £233 million reduction in dedicated active travel funding up to April 2025.

MPs say that the progress of active travel objectives could be affected by funding reductions, despite DfT’s suggestion that funding has not been a key issue in its failure to achieve targets.

The report also warns that the Government has not done enough to understand the impact and benefits of the £2.3bn in taxpayers’ money it has spent on active travel infrastructure between 2016 and 2021.

Too little is known about the quality of the infrastructure that has been built, it says.

DfT has an “incomplete understanding” of what has been built because, according to the report, the majority of schemes have cost less than the amount required to monitor or evaluate them.

The committee is calling on DfT to lay out its plans to evaluate active travel interventions by December.

Dame Meg Hillier MP, chair of the committee, said: “Billions in taxpayers’ money appears to have been parachuted in by DfT on active travel without its impact properly tracked.

“Without the evidence-based, collaborative and holistic approach now needed, the Government’s ambitions in this area are likely to continue to go into reverse gear.”

The report says that the DfT has also not yet taken essential steps to properly integrate active travel into the public transport network, for example enabling people to safely walk to bus stops or take their bike on the bus.

MPs said they were concerned that a lack of available or secure bike parking, or safe paths, may discourage people from cycling or walking part of a journey.

“The Government’s executive agency Active Travel England is off to a good start, but needs firm backing for it to maintain momentum,” continued Hillier.

“Local authorities also require closer working and support to deliver successful schemes.”

The report calls for local authorities to be provided with greater certainty about the funding available for active travel to enable them to invest in and deliver long-term, ambitious active travel interventions.

The committee’s inquiry heard that councils are being held back from delivering successful interventions by considerable uncertainty in available funding, which is available through multiple routes, often short-term, and provided at late notice.

Hillier said: “The Government itself estimates that every pound invested in active travel reaps around £4.30 in benefits, in health, in air quality, in decarbonisation. If true, these are significant levels of potential value for taxpayers’ money to be realised.

“But close monitoring is required to understand what works and why in active travel investment, and coherence and stability of funding is crucial should these schemes be given a chance to succeed. Our inquiry found these sadly lacking.”