Recommendation 22

We are pleased the Government has promised to empower local authorities to take bold decisions in this area and to publish a toolkit of guidance and information to help local authorities develop innovative and sustainable transport policies. We also welcome its commitment to investing £2 billion over five years in active travel, most of which will be channelled through local authorities, but we are concerned that this might not be enough. Funding should be more consistent and reliable and not dependent on competitive bidding processes, which tend to benefit the larger and better resourced councils and lead to wasted resources on unsuccessful bids. We recommend that funding for active travel be put on a more consistent footing and that the Government work more closely with local authorities to support and monitor their activities.