Andrew Dorrian is a chartered Town Planner and member of the Transport Planning Society. He is a Senior Transport Planner at the North East Combined Authority. He works in Transport and Infrastructure planning responsible for the development and delivery of the North East’s transport pipeline and transport plan.
Economic Growth has been a big feature of the 2024 General Election campaign. We have heard the challenge of the speed of making planning decisions acting as a brake on economic growth with changes proposed to the need to bring forward nationally significant infrastructure projects.
Whilst growth might be a feature, it is important not to forget the role that well designed and delivered transport systems can have to decarbonise our future. We have heard much around the contribution transport makes to the UK’s Greenhouse Gas emissions and equally the role it can play in delivering a net zero carbon future.
Delivering against the economic growth agenda and one with an environmental focus has in the past been perceived as being tensions pulling in either direction. There are significant opportunities to integrate and plan cohesively the transport network to meet the needs of the country but to do that bold structural action is needed in how those decisions are taken.
The National Infrastructure Commission in their second Infrastructure Assessment (2023) provided a robust assessment of the actions Government can take to deliver ‘modern, reliable infrastructure [that] can support economic growth, help tackle climate change and enhance the natural environment’. The report notes that growth should be balanced and at a range of scales. The UK Government has the opportunity to continue to work with the NIC to consider and deliver its recommendations, particularly on how to deliver some of the cross departmental objectives.
At a subnational scale, the role of subnational transport bodies (STBs) of which there are currently eight in England, could be used as a means of coordinating policy positions and delivering a coherent plan for their area. They benefit from significant analytical functionality and the ability to both work with their respective constituent authorities (usually Combined Authorities) and national agencies (National Highways and Network Rail) to build relations and make recommendations for decision. There is further devolution potential for Government to enable such STBs to be involved in the development and delivery of road and rail investment decisions enriching these in evidence.
There is a significant opportunity to build on the momentum provided through the establishment of more regional Combined Authorities in England and devolved Nations elsewhere to integrate policy decision making processes. Quite often they have responsibilities for economic growth and transport. There are opportunities to focus this on overcoming inequalities (including reducing Transport Related Social Exclusion) and providing improved local choice at a range of scales from safe streets to walk, wheel and cycle to affordable convenient public transport services and infrastructure which is resilient.
Being able to integrate both plan and decision making, and transport is a useful and effective way to avoid compounding the problem further with avoiding developments that are unsustainable from a transport perspective. The delivery of services locally, whether that’s retail, healthcare or education within an easy reach will also reduce the need to travel long distances to meet basic needs.
The transport network needs sustained revenue funding to deliver the outcomes needed. As such a genuine long-term approach to maintaining the network that is inflation linked will allow greater value for money to be derived in the way that maintenance is undertaken. This will also unlock opportunities to renew structures which quite often cannot be funded from existing maintenance budgets and improve the resilience of transport networks from the impacts of climate change. By also investing in behaviour change initiatives, this has the potential to provide people with the confidence to choose alternative modes of travel, the skills they need and the opportunities to do so, supporting improved public health along the way.
There is significant opportunity for transport to play a strong role in supporting economic growth. This doesn’t always have to be in the traditional way of investing in large scale capital measures. The role of transport in personal travel choice, local placemaking, in health, as a means of improving quality and in emissions management are equally important and should be given prominence in policy making.
There are a range of agencies and actors that can assist with this agenda and the test for Government is to ensure they are utilising them in the most coherent way to drive at a coordinated agenda to ensure the network is fit for the future.
