Transport Insights

A parliamentary answer from a transport minister sets out the distribution of local transport funding through mayoral and other transport authorities over the next few years – and proves to be a portal into a previously unannounced new framework for local transport funding.

Labour MP Julia Buckley asked:

of the £21 billion of new local transport funding announced across the Comprehensive Spending Review period, how much funding is allocated to (a) Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities, (b) Mayoral Strategic Authorities, and (c) local councils not within a combined authority.

I think the answer from Lilian Greenwood is best broken down:

Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities will receive c£7.7bn of transport funding through their integrated settlement over the Spending Review period from 2026/27 to 2029/30 (to 2028/29 for Resource Funding).

Mayoral Strategic Authorities with a mayor in place will receive c£4bn of transport funding through the Mayoral Transport Fund over the same period.

So far so good. Nearly £12bn of the £21bn is to go to the two top levels of existing mayoral authorities. Then:

All other local transport authorities will receive c£9.6bn of local transport funding over the Spending Review period, via the Integrated Transport Fund and Bus Services Fund.

This includes c£1.2bn for Foundation Strategic Authorities (combined authorities without an elected mayor) and c£2.9bn for local authorities that are part of the Devolution Priority Programme and are due to be established as Mayoral Transport Authorities.

The first confusing bit is that while we know which authorities are part of the Devolution Priority Programme, no-one knows how many foundation strategic authorities there will be.

The other really confusing thing is that the Department for Transport (DfT) has not announced publicly that it has created an Integrated Transport Fund, but only said this to local transport authorities.

As it says in this memorandum of understanding between the DfT and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Unitary Authority:

The Integrated Transport Fund consolidates the following formula-based local transport grants:

Highways Maintenance (CDEL)

Active Travel (RDEL and CDEL)

Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Capability Funding (RDEL)

Local Transport Grant (RDEL and CDEL)

LA Bus Grant (CDEL)

Even more confusingly, there is a separate Bus Services Fund and:

The Integrated Transport Fund and the Bus Services Fund are two distinct consolidated funds and the Authority cannot move funding between the two.

But the pots within the Integrated Transport Fund are no longer ring-fenced and in exchange authorities have to produce local transport delivery plans. And, confusingly, these are separate from local transport plans.

As Local Transport Today/TransportXtra explains:

The long-awaited new Local Transport Plan (LTP) guidance just published by the DfT has highlighted how the recently introduced requirement for Local Transport Authorities to produce an annual Local Transport Delivery Plan, will now function alongside the LTP process.

While the LTP is still expected to establish the high-level ‘what’ and ‘why’ of an area’s transport strategy, the Delivery Plan, the final version of the first of which must be submitted to the Department this September, must specify the ‘how,’ ‘when,’ and ‘who by,’ and the spending and funding implications, with the first year fully detailed and later years in outline.

[…]

First set out in a letter from the DfT to local transport authority chief executives just before Christmas, awareness of the requirement for the new LTDPs appeared very limited so far when LTT spoke to a range of transport planning practitioners this week.

Yes, it was all news to me.