Transport Insights

The Department for Transport (DfT) has managed to pull off two of its favourite tricks in an announcement this morning, re-announcing funding and labelling it “investment” when it’s day-to-day.

Millions of people across the country will have greater access to jobs, education and public services thanks to a £104 million government funding boost, which will be shared with communities outside England’s major cities.

The gist of the story is that the DfT has confirmed the Local Transport Grant (LTG) resource allocations that English councils outside city regions will receive for the next three years, with the headline figure of £104m having been announced in the Spending review.

So, despite claims that the cash is a “boost”, it’s the deceitful labelling of the continuation of an existing funding stream as extra cash.

There is a small amount of extra cash for a small number of councils from 2027, but this comes on the back of previous freezes, which continue into 2026-27.

The annual total of £28m next year is therefore the same as this year, and the year before, with £38m a year after that.

And, despite the grand claims about the cash delivering all kinds of benefits, the DfT webpage on the allocations makes clear that it is intended to help to build the authorities’ capability and capacity, including:

• developing and updating local transport plans
• to effectively deliver local transport infrastructure priorities – working with regional partners

It should not be used to subsidise the day-to-day delivery of transport services.

So of course it isn’t the “investment” that the DfT has robotically labelled it.

The press release also notes that:

Today’s £104 million resource allocation boost for local authorities follows the government’s commitment of £2.2 billion

It makes no effort to explain this but the £2.2bn is the capital allocations for the same councils over four years, which was the scope of the Spending Review for capital purposes.

The resource allocations for some councils have gone up because they are linked to this funding.

By way of a footnote, someone in the DfT is a fan of floating bus stops, if the image attached to the press release is anything to go by.