British Chambers of Commerce annual conference
[Check against delivery]
Ladies and Gentlemen.
1. It's a great pleasure to be here today, and to have this opportunity to address the British Chambers of Commerce Annual Conference.
2. I know from my time at the Department for Trade and Industry - and now at Transport - that yours is an organisation with a strong voice, representing businesses in all parts of country, and making a powerful contribution to our public debates.
3. And from my discussions with your members I understand how important transport is for the business community.
4. Not simply because it links employees with their places of work, and gives customers access to markets.
5. But because it also provides the arteries and connections so fundamental to trade and commerce - whether you're a local distributor, or a major production plant that relies on sophisticated just-in-time delivery systems.
6. Britain's growing economy presents us with real and new transport challenges. But these are challenges that we must meet if our transport network is to continue to support a growing economy - and support your businesses in the long-term.
7. And that is why as a department along with the Treasury we commissioned a businessman of international standing - Sir Rod Eddington - to produce an independent report on the role of transport in sustaining UK productivity and competitiveness.
8. And while the Government will set out its full response to the report alongside the Comprehensive Spending Review later in the year, today I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about some of the steps we're taking to build a transport system that rises to challenges set out in the Eddington Study.
CHALLENGES
9. Both the Eddington report - and the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change that helped inform it - have shown that economic growth and the environment cannot be considered in isolation.
10. Indeed, they demonstrated how in addressing climate change we can be both pro-environment and pro-growth.
11. And Stern's twin core economic arguments - that the costs of not addressing climate change far outweigh the costs of action and that the earlier this action is taken, the lower any costs will be, were fed directly into the Eddington Study, which was advised by Sir Nicholas Stern.
12. Eddington showed that the strategic economic priorities for long-term transport policy in our country should be based around three key areas:
13. First - growth cities; second - key inter-urban corridors; and third - major international gateways.
14. This - he says - will provide us with a solid foundation for future economic growth, and a platform for greater sustainability in transport.
GROWTH CITIES
So let me take each of these In turn. First, growth cities - where there's most pressure on transport infrastructure.
15. Today in Britain the majority of journeys are local - for example 84% of commuter journeys are shorter than 15 miles. Of the 30 million commuters in this country, 55% are destined for large urban areas.
16. And let us be very clear, these growth cities are not only important in themselves, but they also help sustain growth in the wider regions of the country.
17. Just look at the renaissance of our northern cities. Transport improvements have contributed significantly to major urban regeneration schemes over the past decade - in cities like Birmingham, Newcastle and Manchester.
18. But if we're going to tackle congestion in major cities in the long term - and therefore help the business community - we need to consider more ambitious approaches.
19. Eddington's report revealed that growing congestion on our roads would waste an extra £22 billion of time by 2025 if left unchecked.
20. By putting record investment into public transport, coupled with developing a range of measures, called 'smarter choices', we hope to give more people a real alternative to travelling by car.
21. We're also tackling congestion by investing in improved traffic management.
22. But we need to do more.
23. And one of the options - that research suggests could significantly reduce congestion levels through a small shift in travel patterns - is road pricing.
24. That's why this summer we are expecting those authorities interested in local pilot schemes to address local congestion to submit proposals to the department.
25. A key part of any scheme established would be further investment in public transport. This is why the Government has established the Transport Innovation Fund - which will provide up to £200m a year from 2008 - to those areas interested in establishing innovative demand management solutions to their local congestion challenge.
26. Any pilots established will give us a much clearer idea of how road pricing could work in practice. As part of the national debate on road pricing we look forward to hearing what BCC members think of any local schemes established.
27. These local trials - based around some of the growth cities targeted in the Eddington report - will give us all, Government, businesses, motorists, local government, and road safety campaigners - the chance to see how they work.
28. But, at the same time as we are undertaking local congestion pilots, we will be investing significantly in rail to support growth cities.
29. Across the network, we are today spending £88 million a week to improve the railways.
30. Major programmes like the West Coast Main Line upgrade, and the Mark 1 replacement, which added 325 new carriages, have made a real difference to services.
31. As a result of the investment we have made, we already have one of the youngest train fleets in Europe, but recently I announced plans to add 1,000 extra rail carriages to increase capacity across many parts of the network.
32. Alongside this, Network Rail unveiled a £2.5 billion investment programme to enhance the railways over the next two years.
33. And while the challenge of capacity is real, so too is the progress we have made. While the railway is currently carrying more than a billion passenger journeys a year, performance has also improved markedly, with around 90% of services now running on time.
IMPORTANCE OF BUSES
34. Finally, let me say a word about buses. A transport mode too often crowded out of the headlines by other transport stories. But given the fact that 2 out of 3 public transport journeys are still made by bus, the quality of bus services have a real impact on your employees and your businesses.
35. And although bus patronage is growing year-on-year for the first time in decades - still passengers in too many towns and cities are not getting the services they deserve.
36. Without good bus services that are accessible, affordable and attractive to a broad range of people, it means motorists have less incentive to leave their cars at home. And roads get more congested - when only a moderate cut in traffic would deliver significantly improved traffic conditions.
37. This is why, last year, we undertook a full review of the bus sector, which resulted in new proposals to forge stronger partnerships between local authorities and bus operators. And I'm pleased to say that the proposals have been widely welcomed.
INTER-URBAN
38. Let me now turn to the second area the Eddington study identified as crucial to growth and competitiveness: - inter-urban connections – which, of course, are vital to you in business, and vital to the regional and national economy.
39. The modernised West Coast Main Line, for example, is playing a major role improving connections between London, Manchester and Glasgow, cutting journey times between London and Manchester by around half an hour.
40. And we're looking carefully at longer-term ways to boost rail travel between main urban areas.
41. A key part of this could be a new generation of inter-city trains. Indeed the successor to the Intercity 125's - the Intercity Express Programme - is potentially the most significant rolling stock investment programme in the UK for over 30 years.
42. This summer we will set out our future spending plans for rail - showing how we intend to build upon recent improvements in performance and greater reliability, and how we plan to increase capacity on the network.
43. Yet notwithstanding the importance and prominence of rail, the overwhelming number of journeys in our country are still made by road.
44. So we will continue to develop our road infrastructure, building new roads where appropriate, and improving the way we use the existing network.
45. Since 2001, the Highways Agency have, for example, delivered 44 major new schemes have been completed on strategic road network. And a further 21 major schemes are currently under construction.
46. Over recent years we have also introduced more than a thousand Highways Agency road traffic officers, and innovative traffic management schemes are improving flow at hundreds of locations around the country.
GLOBAL GATEWAYS
47. Together with growth cities and interurban links, Eddington's third area of focus is the global gateways - where we do business with the rest of the world.
48. And let me say first, we recognise the vital role that ports and the maritime industry play in our economy - and are currently going through a review of ports to make sure they're able to support a growing Britain in years to come.
49. As Eddington makes clear, Britain has world-class air connections - which play a major role in boosting our competitiveness on a global level.
50. And just before Christmas we published a progress report on the Air Transport White Paper, which reiterated how our balanced approach to aviation reflected an industry continuing to make a major contribution to the British economy.
51. But we're also committed to ensuring that aviation reflects the full costs of its climate change emissions - as recommended in the Stern Review.
52. That's why as a British Government, we've led the campaign within Europe for aviation’s inclusion in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme - and why I welcome the fact that the Commission has recently published its proposals to include aviation.
53. And let me say that - across the spectrum of transport - we will continue to strengthen our commitment to sustainability.
54. Put simply, climate change is the greatest long-term challenge we face today - both as a society and as an economy.
55. My Department will shortly be launching significant new work on the future efficiency of freight distribution, to bring about better environmental performance in this sector, through new vehicle technologies and more intelligent distribution systems.
56. In addition, we will be shortly publishing our Low Carbon Transport Innovation Strategy. This document demonstrates that surface transport provides a real opportunity to deliver significant reductions in carbon emissions through technological advancement.
57. But our key challenge is to reduce carbon, not reduce mobility.
58. Indeed, in the years ahead transport must become one of the solutions to climate change, not just one of the problems.
59. That will help us support you as businesses; while keeping our broader environmental commitments.
60. Mandatory targets for cars' fuel efficiency and biofuels will help us to deliver significant carbon savings.
61. This is also being done in a way that provides market certainty. By establishing long term, clear frameworks for carbon reduction, the private sector can plan its investments and innovate towards achieving the objective of carbon reduction.
62. The policies set out in our climate change programme should deliver around 6 million tonnes of carbon savings in 2010, compared to what they would have been.
63. Elsewhere, in February this year the DfT launched the National Business Travel Network, operated by the Transport 2000 Trust, to promote and encourage wider take-up of travel planning both for the commuter and during the course of business. Travel planning could reduce car use to the workplace by between 10 and 25 per cent.
64. In fact working with businesses - through organisations like BCC - is an area of real opportunity. Through initiatives like travel planning, driver training and the DfT-funded Energy Saving Trust’s green fleet reviews, we can make significant improvements to the environmental impact of business transport.
65. If the challenge of the 20th Century was to build a transport network that helped overcome the barriers of distance and time, the new challenges for the 21st Century are to address rising congestion and emissions.
66. As I said at the outset of my remarks, the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change taught us that we can - indeed, need to - be pro-environment and pro-growth.
67. By finding the right policies, we can find answers that strengthen the economy and sustain the environment. That work locally and nationally. That work for business and the private traveller.
68. These are our shared challenges as we look ahead.
69. And working together, I believe they can be our shared achievement.
70. Thank-you.
Delivered: 17 April 2007
(This speech represented existing departmental policy but the words may not have been the same as those used by the Minister.)
