1.Walking and cycling are essential parts of the solution to tackling physical inactivity, climate change, air pollution, and congestion, but for too long walking and cycling have not been given enough attention by policymakers. The 2015 legislation requiring the Government to develop a strategy for these modes should help to change this. We welcome the Government’s commitment, set out in its first Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, to increasing levels of walking and cycling, and its ambition to make walking and cycling the natural choices for shorter journeys, or a part of longer journeys. The Government needs to make sure its strategy remains relevant and encourages appropriate action across Whitehall and at all levels of local government. We identify in this Report several actions that the Department can take to achieve this. (Paragraph 17)
2.Despite the Government’s Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy being published more than two years ago, the Government has not provided any significant detail on progress delivering its strategy. We recommend that the Government produces an annual report on delivery of its Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. This should set out progress meeting the targets set out in the strategy, an assessment of whether the targets are still fit for purpose or should be revised, and an assessment of what further actions are necessary to meet the Government’s targets. We welcome the then Minister’s statement that he intended to publish an update over the summer and expect this to be published by the end of September 2019 at the latest. (Paragraph 20)
3.The Government’s commitment to increasing levels of cycling and walking is welcome but its current targets are not ambitious enough, particularly for walking. Despite being the most accessible and widely undertaken form of active travel—and being part of almost every journey—walking is rarely given proper attention by policymakers and planners. It is disappointing the Government’s strategy has not given walking a higher priority. While the Government’s targets for cycling are more ambitious than its targets for walking, England is starting from a very low level of cycling activity, particularly when compared to many countries in continental Europe. Representatives from walking and cycling stakeholder groups told us the Government should revisit its Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, and that now is the right time to do so. We agree. We recommend that the Government revise its Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy with more ambitious targets for increasing levels of cycling and—particularly—walking. A draft revised strategy should be published alongside the Government’s first report on its progress towards meeting the objectives set out in its strategy, to be consulted upon in the autumn with a view to a final revised strategy being published early in 2020. (Paragraph 26)
4.The greatest benefits of increasing levels of walking and cycling—to individual health, the environment and congestion—will only be realised if people choose to walk or cycle instead of driving. There is a compelling case for the Government to set targets and a strategy for achieving modal shift from cars to active travel. We recommend that any revised Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy include targets for getting people to switch from driving to active travel. These targets should be based on the number of journeys made by car, foot or bicycle for journeys of less than 1, 2, 5 and 10 miles. The Government should set modal shift targets for 2025 and 2040, to align with the targets it sets for increasing levels of walking and cycling. These should be at a level that ensures England meets—at the very least—the Committee on Climate Change’s assumption that there will be a 10% transport modal shift by 2050. Local authorities should be encouraged to set local targets for modal shift as part of their Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans, which we consider in the next Chapter. (Paragraph 32)
5.The Government has a crucial role in championing active travel and providing leadership at a national level. We have been told that this leadership is lacking. While the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy is important, if walking and cycling are to be given the priority they need and deserve it is essential to look at the role of ministers and officials across Government. The benefits of increasing levels of walking and cycling will contribute to the goals of Government across several departments. This needs to be recognised through better cross-departmental working, led by the Department for Transport. We welcome the then Minister’s acknowledgement that there was “potential to improve coordination of cross-government interventions” and expect his successor to fulfil this potential. We recommend that, in its response to this Report, the Department for Transport set out a plan for improving how the Government champions and provides leadership on active travel, including plans for working with other departments to improve coordination of cross-government interventions by increasing understanding of the contribution active travel can make to their own objectives and how they recognise this in their own plans and strategies, in order to enhance delivery of the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. (Paragraph 36)
6.Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans appear to be the main vehicle through which the Government’s Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy will be delivered, and we welcome their development as a mechanism for local authorities to take a long-term approach to identifying and delivering interventions to increase levels of walking and cycling. We also welcome the support the Department for Transport has provided to help local authorities develop LCWIPs, and we were impressed by the level of ambition that several local authorities have shown for increasing levels of walking and cycling in their areas. While we note that the LCWIP programme is a pilot, and the initial support for developing these plans was made available on a competitive basis, we believe that ultimately there should be LCWIPs for the whole of England. We recommend that the Government assess how successful the LCWIP pilot has been in helping local authorities develop plans that will ensure the Government’s Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy is delivered. If LCWIPs have helped local authorities prioritise active travel and develop plans for increasing walking and cycling at a local level, in a way that represents good value for money, then the Government should be clear that it expects all local authorities to develop these plans, and should commit to providing technical support to help all local authorities in England develop their LCWIPs. (Paragraph 43)
7.If LCWIPs are to be the main mechanism by which the Government’s Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy will be delivered, it is important that the Government has a clear plan for encouraging local authorities to develop LCWIPs and for monitoring their contribution to the delivery of the CWIS. We recommend that, as part of the process for reporting on progress delivering the CWIS, the Government set out plans for monitoring and reporting on delivery of LCWIPs, including an assessment of the contribution they have made to the delivery of the Government’s Strategy. (Paragraph 44)
8.It is disappointing that, having developed guidance for local authorities to create Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans and encouraged them to do so, the Government has not created a clearer mechanism for funding the delivery of these plans. The Government has set out its ambitions for increasing levels of active travel. If the delivery of LCWIPs is essential to achieving those ambitions the Government needs to fund and support both the development and delivery of these plans. We have been told that financial support is required by local authorities not just to develop plans and improve infrastructure, but also to raise awareness and encourage behaviour change in order to realise the benefits of capital investment. Expecting local authorities to make active travel a priority without providing additional funding would mean that they would have to find resources within their existing—already strained—budgets. This is not realistic. (Paragraph 49)
9.Funding for active travel is too piecemeal and complex, and the Government has not given local authorities the certainty they need to prioritise active travel and make long-term funding commitments. The lack of dedicated funding for active travel means there is no guarantee that the £2 billion the Government has estimated will be spent on active travel this Parliament will actually be spent on increasing levels of walking and cycling. The Government appears to be relying on local authorities choosing to prioritise active travel in their own bids for central Government grants, rather than committing the investment that is necessary to achieve the targets it has set out in its own strategy. This is not good enough. (Paragraph 64)
10.We recommend that the Government bring together the funding it expects to be invested in active travel into a dedicated funding stream for local authorities to deliver improvements—such as those set out in Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans—that will increase levels of walking and cycling. This new funding stream should make money available for resource as well as capital spending to both develop and maximise the benefits of infrastructure improvements. Creating a single fund for active travel will make it easier for local authorities to apply for funding and would give them give the confidence to prioritise active travel, in the knowledge that bids for these funds would not be in competition with bids for other purposes. (Paragraph 65)
11.We welcome the Government’s statement that it will encourage local authorities to increase investment in cycling and walking infrastructure to 15% of total transport infrastructure spending. However, it is not clear that this encouragement will, on its own, be effective—particularly when local budgets are under increasing pressure. We recommend that, as part of the annual progress report we have recommended they produce on delivery of the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, the Department publish figures on the proportion of each local authority’s transport infrastructure budget which is spent on active travel. This would show that the Department is monitoring local authorities, and it would provide a basis for those local authorities who are not meeting this target to be held to account. (Paragraph 66)
12.The increase in spending on active travel this Parliament is welcome, and the £2 billion the Government has said will be spent on walking and cycling from 2016 to 2021 is a start, but it equates to only £400 million a year. This is a tiny sum compared with spending on other areas of transport—and is just 1.5% of transport spending in England. The evidence indicates that this level of investment is insufficient to fulfil the Government’s current targets, which we’ve said already are not ambitious enough. Increasing levels of walking and cycling will help the Government tackle congestion, improve public health and reduce damage to the environment. These are benefits that merit greater priority and increased funding. The Government needs to invest more in active travel. (Paragraph 69)
13.The then Minister recognised that WebTAG—the Department for Transport’s guidance on appraising transport projects—has defects when it comes to measuring the benefits of active travel. Given that this is the main tool local authorities use to determine the value of money of transport infrastructure improvements, it is important that it reflects the benefits to all road users, including pedestrians and cyclists. We recommend that the Department review its WebTAG guidance by the end of the year, with a view to improving its usefulness to local authorities in assessing walking and cycling schemes. (Paragraph 70)
14.The Government needs to increase spending on active travel if it is going to deliver the increases in walking and cycling that it should be aiming for. As well as more funding, certainty that this funding will continue over the long-term is essential if local authorities are to make active travel a priority. We recommend that the Government increase funding for active travel in future Spending Review periods. The Department for Transport should propose a long-term funding settlement for active travel, increasing over time. This would give the signals necessary to local authorities to make active travel a priority. The Department for Transport should seek appropriate funds from the Treasury to ensure the delivery of new, ambitious targets in the revised Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy that we have called on the Department to adopt. (Paragraph 75)
15.We welcome the current sharing of good practice that takes place between local authorities, and the new online forum the Department for Transport has developed to facilitate peer-to-peer learning. We also welcome the work being undertaken to update guidance for pedestrian and cycling infrastructure. However, there are a number of areas where we feel that the Department can improve guidance and better enable the sharing of best practice. We recommend that, as soon as possible, the Department for Transport review its existing suite of infrastructure design and planning guidance for local authorities, and how it supports the sharing of good practice, to ensure that local authorities are not unnecessarily inhibited from making the changes they need to in order to deliver their Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans. This review should cover:
16.While building better infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists is vital to increasing levels of walking and cycling, the Government could also provide local authorities with powers to better enable them to give walking and cycling priority over other modes of transport. We recommend that the Department for Transport consult with local authorities on what additional powers might help them implement Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans. We also reiterate the recommendation, made most recently in our May 2019 Report on Bus Services in England outside London that the Government implement Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004 to decriminalise moving traffic offences so that they can be enforced by local transport authorities. (Paragraph 87)
Published: 23 July 2019