Louise Haigh responds to the NAO’s report that the government will not achieve its walking and cycling targets

Louise Haigh MP, Labour's Shadow Transport Secretary, responding to the National Audit Office’s report that the government will not achieve its walking and cycling targets, said:

"This government's failure to get on track to meet its own targets for walking and cycling is just the latest in a literal cycle of broken promises.

“Walking and cycling has huge benefits for public health, the environment and the economy, but this government has shown again and again that it cannot deliver on its word."

Ends

Notes:

• The National Audit Office found that at current rates of progress the Department of Transport will not achieve three of its four objectives for increasing active travel by 2025, with progress on the fourth ‘uncertain’.
  
  
• Earlier this year the government announced significant cuts to active travel investment. Confirming that, of the £710 million pledged for active travel in the 2021 spending review, only £100 million more would be invested, amounting to a £380 million reduction:
  https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jun/05/ministers-face-legal-challenge-over-cuts-to-walking-and-cycling-investment-in-england
  
  
• This reduction in investment will cost the taxpayer over £2 billion in growth based on the Department for Transport’s own analysis that active travel investments have a “very high” benefit-to-cost ratio of £5.62 per £1 spent:
  https://www.theguardian.com/news/2023/mar/20/cuts-cycling-walking-budget-england-cost-more-long-term-labour