{"id":3374,"date":"2023-11-07T04:29:35","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T04:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/the-worst-challenge-is-inconsistency-in-funding-mobilitymatters\/"},"modified":"2023-11-07T04:29:35","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T04:29:35","slug":"the-worst-challenge-is-inconsistency-in-funding-mobilitymatters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/the-worst-challenge-is-inconsistency-in-funding-mobilitymatters\/","title":{"rendered":"The worst challenge is\u00a0inconsistency in funding (MobilityMatters)"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the more frustrating things about working in the transport sector is the ever-present issue of funding. But this is not the issue that you may think it is. Most of you probably think that this is a matter of either total amount of funding available or its priorities. Both of these are issues, but they are\u00a0known<\/em>\u00a0issues. In other words, even the worst transport authorities in the world can plan for there being little funding, or all of the funding allocated to roads.<\/p>\n

The worst challenge is\u00a0inconsistency in funding<\/strong>. Effective planning for both maintaining and improving transport infrastructure and services needs long term, consistent funding. The National Infrastructure Commission, in its\u00a0Second National Infrastructure Assessment<\/a>, states:<\/p>\n

\u2026the current structure and complexity of local government funding does not allow for [authorities to plan for the long term]. There are multiple funding streams that can only be spent on centrally determined priorities, and local authorities often have to bid against each other to access them, preventing long term planning and diverting scarce resources towards putting bids together.<\/p>\n

The UK funding system for transport \u2013 already highly centralised with local government (whose only two sources of raising funding itself are\u00a0Council Tax<\/a>\u00a0(for which raises to the general fund are\u00a0capped at 3%<\/a>\u00a0without a binding public vote because a former Local Government Minister seemed to hate Councils) and\u00a0Business Rates<\/a>) reliant on central government grants for\u00a0road maintenance<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0sustainable transport funding<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 is especially bad. Councils are often expected to react very quickly and bring together detailed costing and business case work to support a funding bid that they are not guaranteed to win.<\/p>\n

A case in point \u2013 just over 2 years ago I was tasked with pulling together a\u00a0Levelling Up Fund bid<\/a>. I will be honest, I knew this bid was not going to succeed. For the bid, a 30 page form was expected to be filled in, with a full business case, against which different types of schemes would be judged on their ability to \u2018level up\u2019 areas. To do that level of detail of work within 6 weeks was impossible. But I was told to do so, with people saying that this fund would be judged \u201cmore on politics than on substance\u201d and that it was important that \u201cwe put a marker down.\u201d<\/p>\n

I worked 60 hour weeks for 6 solid weeks to get the application in. It failed. And I am thankful that it failed, because the project was not fully scoped and missed critical details that I warned would put the entire project in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

It has recently been reported<\/a>\u00a0that 95% of the authorities awarded Levelling Up funding have been unable to spend it, with 43% of \u00a3429 million in funding being unspent currently. I am not shocked in the slightest. Not least because of the schemes that was awarded funding near where I live \u2013\u00a0one of the most affluent areas of the country<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 has only recently started work.<\/p>\n

This experience is symptomatic of a wider problem. Bidding for funding from central government, often at impossible deadlines to deliver schemes at impossible deadlines, aims to to maintain control and ensures that the Minister can get some press with an announcement. The\u00a0Active Travel Fund<\/a>,\u00a0the Pothole Fund<\/a>, the\u00a0Traffic Signals Maintenance Scheme<\/a>,\u00a0Bus Service Improvement Plans<\/a>,\u00a0Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 all examples of insane bidding processes for what should be routine expenditure for maintaining and upgrading transport infrastructure and services.<\/p>\n

Government has been working for many years on\u00a0devolution deals<\/a>, to devolve both power and funding away from Whitehall to mostly Combined Authorities. This has had some impact on transport, such as Greater Manchester getting powers to implement a Community Infrastructure Levy, while in West Yorkshire there is a commitment to develop a modern mass-transit system through access to a new five-year integrated transport settlement (among other things). This is better than the current system, but is not consistent across the country, and relies on the good will of the Treasury to approve them.<\/p>\n

This aspect of the funding issue cannot be solved by simply throwing more money at the problem or taking money from the likes of National Highways. This is a problem that needs a radical solution. Local councils need the authority to be able to raise local funding for improvements, similar to the\u00a0Versement mobilit\u00e9<\/a><\/em>\u00a0often deployed in France, or even the\u00a0Business Rate Supplement<\/a>\u00a0applied to the construction of the Elizabeth Line. Some authorities are trying to be more proactive within the existing system, such as the Cambridge and Peterborough Combined Authority\u00a0raising the Mayoral Precept specifically to fund bus services<\/a>. But this is based on a promise to invest existing funding mechanisms in a certain way, and is not dedicated funding.<\/p>\n

A truly meaningful change means empowering local authorities to set their own direction. They need to be given the power to raise the money to do the work, and the powers to be able to enact change, even if that is against the direction of government policy. A new Local Transport Act is needed that gives Councils:<\/p>\n

Greater revenue-raising powers when it comes to transport, and more discretion on what schemes can be funded through this revenue;<\/p>\n

Mandates that any government funding provided to Councils be for a minimum of 5 years, except in emergencies;<\/p>\n

Devolves Bus Service Operator Grant to local authorities;<\/p>\n

Gives local transport authorities a general strategic transport power for identifying strategic priorities in their area \u2013 though potentially with a general \u2018duty to co-operate\u2019 with statutory bodies;<\/p>\n

Gives the Mayoral Combined Authorities control over local rail services, similar to London Overground in London;<\/p>\n

Reduces the barriers to the delivery of bus franchising.<\/p>\n

Read on<\/a><\/p>\n

The post The worst challenge is\u00a0inconsistency in funding (MobilityMatters)<\/a> appeared first on London Reconnections<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the more frustrating things about working in the transport sector is the ever-present issue of funding. But this is not the issue that you may think it is. Most of you probably think that this is a matter of either total amount of funding available or its priorities. Both of these are issues, but they are\u00a0known\u00a0issues. In other…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camcab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}