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England’s active travel spend 5,000% less than Scotland’s after budget slash

Less than £1 per head will be spent in England outside of London, compared to Scotland’s £50 per head towards promoting cycling and walking, after recent budget cut

A Scottish MP pointed out in Parliament today that the spend per head in England, outside of London, would be lower than a pound — 5,000% less than what the Scottish Government is spending to encourage active travel, after the £200 million cut to England’s budget.

SNP’s Gavin Newlands, speaking in the House of Commons today morning, questioned the UK Government’s ambitions of reaching net zero following the massive cut in  England’s active travel budget announced last month, where he compared England’s scant spend per head to that in Wales and Scotland.

“The Government had a relative positivity of ambition on active travel before slashing the budget, as they now plan to spend less than £1 per head in England outside London, compared with £17 per head in Wales and £50 in Scotland — that’s 5,000 per cent more,” he said.

In the Transport Committee yesterday, the Secretary of State had spoken about England’s other active travel spendings, which are not included in the core funding. However, Newlands provided a rebuttal to that today, citing several projects such as the Black Cart bridge near Glasgow airport that will provide a crossing for people to walk or cycle.

He ended with asking: “Without the waffle, what will the Government do to deliver transformational change?”

> “A backward move” – Government slashes active travel budget for England

To which, Jesse Norman, Minister of Transport replied: “The Government is spending £3 billion on this area over the current spending period. Active Travel England is making an enormous difference to the quality of schemes throughout England.

“And of course, there’s significant amounts of money going in through the Levelling Up fund and through CRSTS [City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements], and other schemes, so we believe that we are on track to meet our targets.”

In March, Transport Secretary Mark Harper had announced a £200 million, or two-thirds cut to active travel budget, which was described as “devastating” by Sustrans and “a backward move” by the Walking & Cycling Alliance (WACA), making it “impossible” to meet net zero and cycling and walking targets.

It has already led to a coalition of all members of WACA along with 28 charities and over 118 cycling training providers writing an open letter to the Prime Minister to demand a reversal of the proposed cuts.

> £200m available for cycling and walking travel schemes in England – with councils urged to prioritise safety of women

WACA said in an announcement that these cuts were “disproportionate compared to those for road and rail and will leave England lagging far behind other UK nations and London”.

“It is heart-breaking to see vital active travel budgets wiped away in England, at the exact time when they are most essential to UK economic, social and environmental prospects,” said WACA. “Representing a two-thirds cut to promised capital investment in walking, cycling and wheeling, these cuts are a backward move for active travel and will counteract the tremendous progress we’ve seen in recent years.”

Gavin Newlands, who is the SNP’s MP for Paisley & Renfrewshire North, was also present at Tuesday’s All Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking's (APPGCW) 2023 showcase event, where calls were made for “consistent” funding to cycling and walking.

Ruth Cadbury, Labour MP and co-chair of the cross-party group, speaking at the event noted the clear benefits cycling infrastructure in her constituency, and stressed the importance of it being funded “properly and sustainably”. She also said the APPGCW was “disappointed” to learn of a cut to the active travel budget in last month's Spring Budget.

> MP stresses need for "consistent" cycling funding after "disappointing" cut to active travel budget

Cadbury suggested it was difficult to know exactly how great the cuts are but said the estimated £50 million per year is “shockingly low for an economy and nation like ours”.

“This compares to in London, the spending is £150 million over the same period,” she put in context. “Members of this group, across all parties and across both houses, will continue to make the case for the importance of cycling and walking, and consistent funding in order to achieve that.”

Adwitiya joined road.cc in 2023 as a news writer after graduating with a masters in journalism from Cardiff University. His dissertation focused on active travel, which soon threw him into the deep end of covering everything related to the two-wheeled tool, and now cycling is as big a part of his life as guitars and football. He has previously covered local and national politics for Voice Wales, and also likes to writes about science, tech and the environment, if he can find the time. Living right next to the Taff trail in the Welsh capital, you can find him trying to tackle the brutal climbs in the valleys.

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23 comments

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dubwise | 11 months ago
1 like
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Saucepan | 11 months ago
0 likes

🧐 living in Edinburgh, roads and infrastructure need monies because the general state of disrepair must be the worst in the U.K. 

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chrisonabike replied to Saucepan | 11 months ago
2 likes

Sounds like fighting talk... however I'm proud (not) of the state (of disrepair) of some of my local roads.  I can only assume West Granton Road (Edinburgh) has been left so Rockstar Games can use it as a model for dystopian and / or battle-damaged infra.

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dubwise replied to chrisonabike | 11 months ago
2 likes

Not any better in the Glasgow area, basically having to stop if traffic coming in opposite direction to avoid the bomb craters.

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Saucepan replied to chrisonabike | 11 months ago
1 like

Yep just fed up with state of roads and politicians spouting rubbish. 
Frequently travel to Europe and by comparison our infrastructure and highways are embarrassing. Maybe people have become acclimatised to crumbling roads 

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Hirsute | 11 months ago
3 likes

This just proves sunak was right - more maths teaching needed!

I did see a survey yesterday about falling inflation - not the best wording but the gist was clear.
If inflation halves what will a £1 pint of milk cost?
40 % went for a £1 or lower.

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eburtthebike replied to Hirsute | 11 months ago
0 likes

Ill defined question.

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chrisonabike | 11 months ago
1 like

What I want to know is if England's active travel budget is 5000% less, why doesn't the active travel infra in Scotland feel 5000% better?

Having queried that, in some places you can see some positives.  In Edinburgh - still a "driving-addicted" city - a couple of "missing links" in what could become a network are being addressed.  The City Centre East-West Link is mid-way through being built (not what you'd call "direct" exactly BUT it is in large part on new, fully-separated cycle paths) and work has started on Roseburn - Union Canal (good for those who like a couple of sharp descents then ascents BUT again separated from the road and does involve building 2 new bridges).  Plus we've added some new competitors for Scotland's finest off-road slaloms, going down Leith Walk.

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eburtthebike replied to chrisonabike | 11 months ago
4 likes
chrisonatrike wrote:

What I want to know is if England's active travel budget is 5000% less, why doesn't the active travel infra in Scotland feel 5000% better?

5,000% more than almost nothing is still tiny.

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Car Delenda Est | 11 months ago
0 likes

Please remember this if English devolution comes up again.
As long as decisions are made for us in London we will continue to be left behind.

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hawkinspeter replied to Car Delenda Est | 11 months ago
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Car Delenda Est wrote:

Please remember this if English devolution comes up again. As long as decisions are made for us in London we will continue to be left behind.

If Scotland does split, can we vote to move some of our cities over to Scotland? (And do we get free Irn-Bru?)

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ktache replied to hawkinspeter | 11 months ago
2 likes

Can it be the sugary one?

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brooksby replied to Car Delenda Est | 11 months ago
1 like

Best thing would probably be to go for London devolution - make it like Vativan City or San Marino - and the rest of England (and Scotland and Wales) could then be run like a real country.

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Rich_cb replied to brooksby | 11 months ago
0 likes

A real country making circa 15-20% cuts to the budgets they're already complaining about.

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wycombewheeler | 11 months ago
7 likes

Honestly you cannot spend 5,000% less, what a nonsense headline.

Now clearly Scotland are spending 5000% more (actually 4900% more), but you can't just reverse that and say 5000% less. because clearly 100% less than anything is zero, and beyond that would be negative. You can't spend negative money on infrastructure. Although maybe there are some dinosaur juice addicts that would pay to rip it out, I'm prety sure this is not what is being refered to.

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geomannie 531 replied to wycombewheeler | 11 months ago
1 like
wycombewheeler wrote:

Honestly you cannot spend 5,000% less, what a nonsense headline.

Now clearly Scotland are spending 5000% more (actually 4900% more), but you can't just reverse that and say 5000% less. because clearly 100% less than anything is zero, and beyond that would be negative. You can't spend negative money on infrastructure. Although maybe there are some dinosaur juice addicts that would pay to rip it out, I'm prety sure this is not what is being refered to.

Maybe Sunak is right about the need for better maths education?

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BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP | 11 months ago
8 likes

 £1 per head - outside London. Great Levelling Up.  (who actually believed that Levelling Up crap anyway?) 

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eburtthebike replied to BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP | 11 months ago
1 like
BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP wrote:

(who actually believed that Levelling Up crap anyway?) 

Me!  I did! 

For at least one nano-second.  Possibly two.

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chrisonabike replied to eburtthebike | 11 months ago
1 like
eburtthebike wrote:
BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP wrote:

(who actually believed that Levelling Up crap anyway?) 

Me!  I did!

Did they catch you with the "Big Society" too?

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eburtthebike replied to chrisonabike | 11 months ago
1 like
chrisonatrike wrote:
eburtthebike wrote:
BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP wrote:

(who actually believed that Levelling Up crap anyway?) 

Me!  I did!

Did they catch you with the "Big Society" too?

Yes!  How did you know?

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Awavey | 11 months ago
4 likes

Curious, Transport Scotland reported the 2022/23 active travel budget as 150million, in 2023/24 its reported to be set at 197million and will likely be 123million in 2024/25 to deliver a commitment to spend 320million by 2024/25 on active travel.

There are 5 million people in Scotland, £50, even Scottish pounds, which let's not even debate which percentage the UK goverment is funding of this anyway, would be a budget of £250million, per year, not 150, not 197, not 123 and not even 320.

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NOtotheEU replied to Awavey | 11 months ago
4 likes

I think the fact that the headline contains 5000% means the maths in the article might be ever so slightly off.

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Sriracha replied to NOtotheEU | 11 months ago
4 likes

No journalist can resist the siren call of the Impressively Big Number ™. Maths doesn't come into it! For the rest of us, yeah, it's embarrassing to behold. Just imagine if the UK spend had been zero, eh?

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