Government on course to fail active travel targets, finds National Audit Office

Obesity costs the NHS around £6.5 billion a year, notes a government press release today, announcing a wealth of new measures to tackle the menace, including new weight loss drug pilot schemes and banning BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free) offers on less healthy food from October.

Tacitly implying that there are a number of ways to tackle the obesity crisis, this press release coincides with another from the National Audit Office (NAO) following its report into the Department for Transport (DfT) and Active Travel England’s (ATE) progress against its active travel targets, namely increasing rates of walking, wheeling and cycling.

Sadly, but perhaps not surprisingly, the DfT has not been found to be on track to meet any of its objectives on increases by 2025. Data gaps have, frustratingly, made it hard for the NAO to identify areas that have not worked but insufficient funding does seem to be one of the certain factors that will see the DfT underperform on its targets.

So far, so unexpected, you might argue. But how bad is it?

No plans to track benefits of active travel investment

The DfT wants active travel to be the natural choice for shorter journeys in England, or part of longer journeys, by 2040. Between 2016 and 2025, DfT estimates the government will provide around £6.6 billion on active travel interventions. The NAO notes that the DfT does not yet know if schemes delivered by local authorities to date have been of good enough quality and does not have a plan in place to track the benefits of its active travel investment. The NAO reports that over half (56%) of local authorities have low capability and ambition to deliver active travel projects, affected the quality of active travel interventions delivered with government funding to date.

The NAO also pointed to the difficulties for some local authorities to deliver (and engage the community) with Covid-19 related £250million funding to increase active travel, with some poor implementation and local controversies.

The DfT has recently changed its approach, however, not least with the establishment of Active Travel England to raise standards and hold local authorities to account and to vitally increase the skills and capacity in local authorities to deliver active travel schemes. ATE has made good early progress, says the NAO, but certain areas need the momentum to continue, it notes, particularly with developing longer term stable funding for active travel, building greater capacity in local authorities to deliver schemes and make people feel safer while walking wheeling and cycling.

“The NAO recommends that DfT review its objectives for 2025 and beyond and set Active Travel England stretching but achievable targets, taking account of progress to date and available funding, and that benefits of schemes are better tracked to inform future funding decisions. The NAO also recommends that DfT works with others in government to develop a more stable funding environment for local authorities delivering active travel interventions, and that DfT and Active Travel England set out how they plan to approach public engagement and address concerns about safety.”

The DfT’s specific cycle objective was to doubling cycling from 0.8 billion stages in 2013 to 1.6 billion in 2025.

Gareth Davies, the head of NAO, said: “Active travel schemes have the potential to deliver significant health and environmental benefits. However, DfT knows little about what has been achieved through its past spending and is not on track to achieve most of its objectives.

“DfT has raised its ambitions for active travel and recognised areas where its performance must improve. Establishing Active Travel England is a good step; Active Travel England and DfT must now maintain this early positive momentum, by learning what works and applying it and building partnerships across central and local government.”

Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, said: “Active travel offers a range of health and environmental benefits.

“But six years on from the Department for Transport’s first investment strategy, it is not on track to achieve its objectives to increase walking and cycling activity, nor does it know the impact of the billions it has spent.

“The setup of Active Travel England is an opportunity to maximise the benefits that can be derived from a reduced budget. It, and the Department, will need to work collaboratively across central and local government to ensure interventions are of a high enough quality to enable more people to safely walk, wheel or cycle.”

A few days ago, CyclingIndustry.News noted that one governmental intervention has improved the prospects for cycling and active travel, with major housing developments now having to consider active travel into their plans by law, via Active Travel England. Taking a cross-departmental view on challenges for the age like obesity and pollution has long been argued for by cycle advocates and it seems that Active Travel England is beginning to do that. You don’t have to be a cycle enthusiast to realise that boosting active travel will impact on the obesity problem and benefit the Department for Health. Both obesity and pollution will continue to be huge issues for England, the UK and the world that will remain in play long after the current economic difficulties. Investing in active travel now remains a no-brainer.