by It’s not all doom and gloom. Graham offers some pointers and positivity.
It’s been clear for some time that transport in England is entering a period of public spending restraint. Pressure on day-to-day operational budgets is, of course, a perennial challenge. Money for shiny new investments – and unglamorous but vital capital renewals – seems to come and go in phases, and on these we are coming into a fallower phase.
It’s not just about the spending review: it’s a bigger picture and the indications have been there for a while. A couple of years ago, for example, working on National Highways’ third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3), it was already clear that few if any major new schemes would start in RIS3, with a focus instead on finishing the RIS2 programme and making the best of the existing network. Likewise in the rail industry, Network Rail’s government funding settlement for 2024-2029 (‘CP7’ in the jargon) involved receding asset quality as renewals were cut back. But the current spending review – and the tricky global context – are bringing the issues into focus again.
So it’s not an easy time for transport planners. But it’s not all doom and gloom. We still have a vital role, and there are still opportunities to improve transport. I’ve seen these ups and downs before over the years. And from that experience, here are some suggestions.
In a single blogpost I can’t cover all the nuances in individual sectors and locations. And the important question of what transport schemes we should actually be implementing is for another post altogether. My suggestions are simply overall pointers. I hope they are encouraging too.
Keep up the strategy. Local policy and strategy documents remain a bedrock of making things happen. Big transport schemes take time – but more still if they are not in the plan to start with.
Although a lot of background technical work goes into these documents, in reality getting a line on a local plan map or a scheme into a local transport plan (LTP) sometimes requires little financial cost or technical work – it can be as simple as the right person saying the right thing at the right meeting. But it can have enormous value later when making the case for a scheme. Of course, a local plan inspector may challenge something if they see no prospect of it actually happening – but if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
Do the smart things that don’t need much money, particularly policy changes that can nudge travel behaviour. For example, parking policies and tariffs are levers that local authorities can control in order to manage congestion and environmental impacts, as well as supporting town centre economies. Interventions like this can be delivered on a relatively short timescale, and can easily be flexed and optimized as experience develops.
With small pockets of money, this can apply to physical measures too – as we saw with reallocation of roadspace during Covid to support active travel. And it’s a good time to renew the focus on practical things, such as removing legacy obstructive barriers on active travel routes, that don’t always get a lot of attention.
Have schemes in your back pocket. It’s still worth having well-thought-through schemes, ideally but not necessarily shovel-ready, for the times when windfalls come. These windfalls could be Section 106 or Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funds that need spending, or an unexpected quickfire funding opportunity. A bit of time and money spent thinking about what you’d like to do, and making a start on scheme development even if substantive funding is not yet secured, can turn out to be a worthwhile investment. When it’s a funding opportunity on a short timescale, you have an advantage if you already know what you’re going to ask for. Even more so if you’ve also ticked-off some of the prep work and got partners on board. Indeed, in some funding competitions, delivery timescales and risks are as important as the substantive nature of the scheme.
The current situation doesn’t seem like the 2007-2009 financial crisis, when private-sector developments were on hold and Section 106 funds dried up. Indeed with the UK government focused on speeding-up housing and other infrastructure development (even if some of our big transport schemes aren’t on that list), there is a lot to play for.
Keep building relationships, partnerships and support. This is another one about the groundwork. Getting the support and momentum for major interventions is often as important as the technical work – and need not cost a lot of money. And support and leadership from politicians sometimes makes all the difference in getting things through. Conversely, one rail service aspiration failed to gather momentum for years because local stakeholders were divided as to whether they actually supported it or not.
The strong message here is that if we have a period without many big things to spend money on, then it’s a good time to do the groundwork for things that can be delivered when the taps get turned back on. Even the small stuff takes time, and the big-ticket items are a long game. When there’s more money available, the things that happen will be the things that are ready to happen and have momentum behind them, not those that are starting from scratch.
Keep plugging away. Incremental improvements gradually add up. They might not have the glitz and glamour of the bigger projects, but they still help people’s day-to-day journeys. After some years it will be possible to look back and realise just how much you’ve done. And the politicians get more ribbon-cuttings than they would with fewer, larger interventions. I’m thinking particularly of local government here, but it’s true across the transport world. For example, some of the well-established rail partnerships have made a big difference over the years, through a series of individual relatively small projects that have added up to a lot.
That’s not to say the mega-projects don’t matter. Of course they do. They achieve transformational things that smaller projects can’t. But even if the money is limited for now, the strategy and the support are important to them too. And a bird in the hand…
Keep going. The day-to-day tasks will continue, and there’s always something needing managing. There will still be housing and employment sites, and infrastructure projects in other sectors, all of which have transport impacts – as well as those transport schemes that do make it through.
And because of our work, the transport system is better than it would have been. It’s easy to lose sight of this in the busyness of the work day and the news agenda. But we all have things that we’re proud of contributing to – so let’s keep adding to the list.
