💷 Not All About Money - MM#616
Sometimes to fix the system, you have to break it.
Good day my good friend.
Much like Friday - no witticisms here. Straight to the good stuff.
If you like this newsletter, please share it with someone else who you think will love it. I will love you forever if you do. ☺️
James
🏛️ If you want revolutionary change, fund it properly
One of the more frustrating things about working in the transport sector is the ever-present issue of funding. But this is not the issue that you may think it is. Most of you probably think that this is a matter of either total amount of funding available or its priorities. Both of these are issues, but they are known issues. In other words, even the worst transport authorities in the world can plan for there being little funding, or all of the funding allocated to roads.
The worst challenge is inconsistency in funding. Effective planning for both maintaining and improving transport infrastructure and services needs long term, consistent funding. The National Infrastructure Commission, in its Second National Infrastructure Assessment, states:
…the current structure and complexity of local government funding does not allow for [authorities to plan for the long term]. There are multiple funding streams that can only be spent on centrally determined priorities, and local authorities often have to bid against each other to access them, preventing long term planning and diverting scarce resources towards putting bids together.
The UK funding system for transport - already highly centralised with local government (whose only two sources of raising funding itself are Council Tax (for which raises to the general fund are capped at 3% without a binding public vote because a former Local Government Minister seemed to hate Councils) and Business Rates) reliant on central government grants for road maintenance and sustainable transport funding - is especially bad. Councils are often expected to react very quickly and bring together detailed costing and business case work to support a funding bid that they are not guaranteed to win.
A case in point - just over 2 years ago I was tasked with pulling together a Levelling Up Fund bid. I will be honest, I knew this bid was not going to succeed. For the bid, a 30 page form was expected to be filled in, with a full business case, against which different types of schemes would be judged on their ability to ‘level up’ areas. To do that level of detail of work within 6 weeks was impossible. But I was told to do so, with people saying that this fund would be judged “more on politics than on substance” and that it was important that “we put a marker down.”
I worked 60 hour weeks for 6 solid weeks to get the application in. It failed. And I am thankful that it failed, because the project was not fully scoped and missed critical details that I warned would put the entire project in jeopardy.
It has recently been reported that 95% of the authorities awarded Levelling Up funding have been unable to spend it, with 43% of £429 million in funding being unspent currently. I am not shocked in the slightest. Not least because of the schemes that was awarded funding near where I live - one of the most affluent areas of the country - has only recently started work.
This experience is symptomatic of a wider problem. Bidding for funding from central government, often at impossible deadlines to deliver schemes at impossible deadlines, aims to to maintain control and ensures that the Minister can get some press with an announcement. The Active Travel Fund, the Pothole Fund, the Traffic Signals Maintenance Scheme, Bus Service Improvement Plans, Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas - all examples of insane bidding processes for what should be routine expenditure for maintaining and upgrading transport infrastructure and services.
Government has been working for many years on devolution deals, to devolve both power and funding away from Whitehall to mostly Combined Authorities. This has had some impact on transport, such as Greater Manchester getting powers to implement a Community Infrastructure Levy, while in West Yorkshire there is a commitment to develop a modern mass-transit system through access to a new five-year integrated transport settlement (among other things). This is better than the current system, but is not consistent across the country, and relies on the good will of the Treasury to approve them.
This aspect of the funding issue cannot be solved by simply throwing more money at the problem or taking money from the likes of National Highways. This is a problem that needs a radical solution. Local councils need the authority to be able to raise local funding for improvements, similar to the Versement mobilité often deployed in France, or even the Business Rate Supplement applied to the construction of the Elizabeth Line. Some authorities are trying to be more proactive within the existing system, such as the Cambridge and Peterborough Combined Authority raising the Mayoral Precept specifically to fund bus services. But this is based on a promise to invest existing funding mechanisms in a certain way, and is not dedicated funding.
A truly meaningful change means empowering local authorities to set their own direction. They need to be given the power to raise the money to do the work, and the powers to be able to enact change, even if that is against the direction of government policy. A new Local Transport Act is needed that gives Councils:
Greater revenue-raising powers when it comes to transport, and more discretion on what schemes can be funded through this revenue;
Mandates that any government funding provided to Councils be for a minimum of 5 years, except in emergencies;
Devolves Bus Service Operator Grant to local authorities;
Gives local transport authorities a general strategic transport power for identifying strategic priorities in their area - though potentially with a general ‘duty to co-operate’ with statutory bodies;
Gives the Mayoral Combined Authorities control over local rail services, similar to London Overground in London;
Reduces the barriers to the delivery of bus franchising.
As this newsletter has often touched on, you can do a lot of impactful things very quickly. But sometimes, radical change is the only game in town. And this is one of those cases.
What you can do: Within the system as it currently operates, it is important to get schemes as ‘shovel ready’ as you can before funding becomes available. Luckily, DfT’s Transport Analysis Guidance gives you some great tools to get you started. Personally, regardless of if you are a professional or activist, I would start with the following:
Get a basic scheme designed - even if in draft
Do a basic strategic case - aligning the scheme with wider objectives
Do a basic cost:benefit analysis - it will be expected!
For the more radical change, come election time, ask your prospective MPs what they are doing to support reform to local government in England.
🎓 From academia
The clever clogs at our universities have published the following excellent research. Where you are unable to access the research, email the author - they may give you a copy of the research paper for free.
Low-carbon economic resilience: The inequality embodied in inter-regional trade
TL:DR - Becoming resilient in a low carbon economic future means sharing the burden between regions.
TL:DR - People who have food insecurity often have to travel longer distances to get food.
TL:DR - Using VR may help us understand how cyclists navigate urban spaces.
Comparison of decentralised fast-charging strategies for long-distance trips with electric vehicles
TL:DR - Being dynamic in charging electric vehicles can save a lot of time that is wasted at the charge point with a fully-charged vehicle.
✊ Awesome people doing awesome things
Sometimes, just doing a small thing can make a big difference. So I was very please to hear of this small act by Bobby Nelson, from close to Adelaide, Australia.
He saw a man who was homeless on a train in Gawler, and did the simple act of giving him shoes. If you know anything about being homeless, one of the biggest things you can give them are shoes and socks. So simple acts like this can make the world of difference. Well done, Bobby!
📻 On the Wireless
The BBC’s More or Less - available on podcast or on BBC Radio 4 between 9am and 9:30am (GMT) on a Wednesday - is a must listen at the best of times. But this episode debunking the myth that you can buy everyone in the UK an electric car for the same price as HS2 is very good.
🖼️ Graphic Design
To achieve our net zero ambitions, we need more renewable energy generation. Thankfully, many of the technologies that we need to deploy are more space-efficient than current power plants. That has big spatial implications. So, one of the aspects of a net zero future we need to consider is what to do with all of those decommissioned power plants.
📆 Event Shout Out
On 4th December between 1pm and 2pm (GMT), there is a webinar on the impact of the e-scooter trials in the West of England (Bristol and Bath) focusing specifically on pedestrian perspectives. Its free to attend, and you should do so. Well done to good friends Grace Hancock and Charlotte Brown for organising (and Georgia Corr for getting it online!).
📚 Random things
These links are meant to make you think about the things that affect our world in transport, and not just think about transport itself. I hope that you enjoy them.
Behavioral Economics and GPT-4: From William Shakespeare to Elena Ferrante (Gabriel Abrams)
How do radical right voters think about feminism and gender equality? (OxPol)
How To Fight a Banana War (EconLife)
The World Is Becoming More African (New York Times)
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