HedgehogCycling.co.uk

Online cycling magazine

Osborne's spending review slashes cycling funding

25th November 2015

Chancellor George Osborne today betrayed Britain's cyclists, with dismal funding for cycling announced in his spending review.

The funding announced was £300 million over the duration of the Parliament, according to CTC, and that includes money already announced and allocated under the Cycle City Ambition scheme.

Spending on cycling this year is £142 million. Spending in the future is set to be £60 million per year, representing a 58% cut. CTC assumes that the £60 million doesn't cover London, and calculates that spending for the rest of England will be £1.39 per person per year. This compares with £10 per person per year suggested by the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group in its Get Britain Cycling report. Earlier this month, the APPCG wrote to the Chancellor to press the case for investment in cycling.

The APPCG letter pointed out that the Prime Minister supported the call for investment of at least £10 per person per year during the General Election campaign. David Cameron has not only failed to meet this commitment, he is presiding over a government that is now committing a tiny proportion of that - a pathetic amount - to cycling. It is inexcusable.

Big projects in the Department for Transport are to go ahead, with £15 billion for the road network and High Speed 2. Cycling, walking, and buses have lost out.

Pal Tuohy, CTC Chief Executive, said, 'This government made a manifesto commitment to double cycle use and reduce serious and fatal injuries for cyclists and other road users. Yet it is hard to see how they can achieve this with such a tiny budget.'

There is hope that more funding could be announced in the Statement of Available Funds due as part of the Cycling & Walking Investment Strategy. It will be consulted on in spring 2016, and come into force in summer 2016 at the earliest - meaning a probable gap in funding from the end of April 2016, when the Lcoal Sustainable Transport Fund runs out, before any new funding comes in.

3 lessons from Copenhagen

Following his visit to Copenhagen with cycling minister Robert Goodwill, Chris Boardman set out three lessons the UK can learn from Copenhagen. 

Wiggle Black Friday offers

Wiggle has special offers all week in the run-up to Black Friday.