The chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak confirmed in the spending review yesterday that the government will invest billions of pounds in sustainable and active travel.
Following Boris Johnson’s ‘Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution’ announced on 18 November, the spending review added more details on what funding will go towards public transport, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and cycling facilities.
Sunak said over £1.3bn will be invested in electric charging infrastructure points, £500m of this was announced in the March budget.
The spending review document states that the government will invest a total of £1.9bn in charging infrastructure and incentives to encourage consumers to switch to EVs. This will include £582m for the plug-in car, van, taxi, and motorcycle grant which aims to reduce the price of zero and ultra-low emission vehicles.
Commenting on the Chancellor’s spending review, David Borland, EY’s UK automotive leader, said: “Investment in the energy sector and charging infrastructure is a critical step forward, alleviating the concerns of many potential EV buyers around ready access to charging at home, charge time and range anxiety.
“But given recent estimates of the number of charging points needed across the UK to support mainstream EV adoption by consumers, further investment may still be needed.”
There will be £120m for 500 new zero-emission buses as well as £2.5bn investment in an intra-city transportation network across eight city regions in England.
A further £257m will be spent on walking and cycling paths, however this falls short of what campaign groups expected. Cycling UK said the budget has been slashed by 15%.
Duncan Dollimore, Cycling UK’s head of advocacy and campaigns, said: “The Government’s ‘Gear Change’ document released in the summer set out a bold vision for cycling and walking in England, but neither that nor the promised ‘Green Revolution’ can be delivered without substantially increasing investment.
“The £257m set aside for active travel next year is less than 1% of the £27.4bn roads budget the Government remains stubbornly wedded to reducing next year’s funding by around £45m makes the delivery of the government’s own targets to increase levels of cycling and walking almost impossible, without the radical shift in transport spending priorities required to decarbonise transport.”
The spending review also promised a new £4bn “levelling up” fund which will pay for upgrading local infrastructure across UK.
However it did state that the UK economy is expected to shrink by 11.3% this year. Furthermore, unemployment is expected to reach 7.5% next spring, with 2.6 million people out of work.
