Funding

This report aims to provide decision makers with a guide to the implications for urban transport of transformative social and technological change and how they can best respond. 

The report (which was produced in collaboration with Arup Foresight) identifies four key overarching trends: 

• Changes in demographics and lifestyles and the rise of the sharing economy alter mobility choices
• Urbanisation, climate change and the need to improve air quality put pressure on transport systems
• Advances in technology and increased digital connectivity make transport infrastructure smarter and more efficient 
• More powers are devolved to cities and city regions which results in more innovation and leadership in responding to urban challenges in locally appropriate ways

The funding and economics of highways maintenance on local roads in the English city regions.

This report reveals a growing gap between spending on road maintenance on national roads when compared with local roads.

This report reviews ten examples of small scale transport schemes that have been delivered by pteg members. The case studies range from intelligent bus priority, to journey planning advice, cycle hire and new bus links. The report shows that small schemes can achieve outstanding value for money by: making use of local knowledge; being responsive to changing circumstances; and by being effectively targeted. Small schemes can also help provide proof of concept for novel interventions. 

This report builds on our 2011 report  on the ‘Value for money and appraisal of small schemes’, which gathered over 150 separate pieces of evidence and showed that, on average, smaller schemes deliver £3.50 of economic benefits for every £1 of public spending. Our wider work demonstrating the impact of local transport spending also includes the 2014 ‘Transport Works for Jobs and Growth’ report, the 2013 ‘Case for the Urban Bus’ report and the transportworks.org website.

The next few years will see an upward trend in local transport capital grant funding from central government, supported by a wide-ranging consensus about the contribution of local transport networks to economic growth. In contrast, Local Authorities have seen a sustained decline in resource funding, driven by deep cuts to the Department for Communities and Local Government‟s (DCLG) budget. And there is no sign the cuts are about to stop. As the mismatch between capital and revenue funding grows, this could ultimately damage the effectiveness of capital investment in local transport networks. This report explores how resource funding constraints are affecting the delivery of local transport capital schemes and how this is likely to evolve over the next few years.