The Rt Hon Jesse Norman MP

Minister of State (Decarbonisation and Technology)

Department for Transport

6 June 2023

Dear Jesse,

I am writing to you about cuts to the active travel budget that will take effect over this Parliamentary term. Sustrans calculate that Active Travel has the potential to contribute £36.5 billion worth of benefit to the UK economy by improving our health and wellbeing. Investment into Active Travel is also vital to reducing carbon emissions and pollution levels, and there’s wealth of evidence, including from the DfT, that the benefits outweigh the costs. 

Whilst I welcome the establishment of Active Travel England, the overall delivery on Active Travel remains disappointing - the Government has failed to put Active Travel on a long term sustainable footing and instead has ignored its own statutory Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS2) by reducing the total investment from 2021 to 2025 by £800 million. This is based on the difference between the Government’s 2022 investment projections of £3.8 billion in their second cycling and walking investment strategy, and the Transport Secretary’s written statement to Parliament on 9 March 2023, which suggested around £3 billion would be invested in active travel over this Parliament. I’d also note that this £3 billion figure includes budgets from other Departments that will benefit Active Travel, that there’s a worrying lack of proper evidence as to how this cross-departmental work will deliver, and that some estimates consider around £18 billion of investment is needed to meet your own target for half of all urban journeys to be walked or cycled by 2030.

Dedicated capital funding is being cut - by two thirds, from £308 million to only £100 million for the next two years - at the same time as the Government is increasing funding for other transport infrastructure, such as roads and the environmentally damaging HS2. Moreover, failure to ringfence funding for schemes like Gear Change and City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) only makes Active Travel investment more precarious.

It is my understanding that your Department is refusing to even acknowledge the changes to CWIS2, other than correcting a £225 million double counting error. Yet the Government’s decisions will put us back years when it comes to delivering the collective goals of improving public health, cutting carbon emissions and supporting local economic growth.  In previous statements Transport Ministers have simply repeated the £3 billion figure and stated that this is more than any previous Government has spent. My point is that it’s not enough and that it is a reduction on what was previously promised. I would therefore be grateful if you respond to the points I have made above, not simply repeat the usual line. Please would you also confirm exactly how you plan to ensure Active Travel gets the vital investment it needs before the next general election and in this climate critical decade. In particular, I’d like to know how you will create a more stable funding environment for local authorities delivering Active Travel interventions, including in partnership with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and what plans you will be putting in place to ensure the Government meets its own targets.

Yours sincerely,