Chancellor Alistair Darling's first pre-Budget report held very little of cheer for road haulage, and the trade associations have expressed their disappointment. Despite claims that the government's aim is a reliable and efficient transport network that supports economic growth and improved productivity, Tuesday's pre-Budget report did little to make life easier for hauliers.
Investment in transport will increase to £14.5bn a year by 2010 and include further spending on strategic road schemes
such as the widening of the M1 and the M6. Some £1.3bn is earmarked for local and regional roads and £15bn over the next five years will go to upgrading the rail network. Darling said there had not been enough investment in transport, which requires investment year after year, and "we're putting that right". Other areas he highlighted were the need to improve the environmental performance of transport and to strengthen safety and security. As part of achieving this aim, the government plans to standardise and clarify major maintenance contracts which it claims will contribute to cash savings of £144m for the Highways Agency by 2010-11.
In terms of investment in roads, the DfT says it will prioritise growing and congested urban areas, key inter-urban corridors and major international gateways. To do this it will
be put a policy and decision-making framework in place that incorporates the recommendations from the Eddington report. The pre-Budget report also confirms the government's commitment to using the Transport Innovation Fund to tackle congestion through supporting local road pricing schemes. Greater Manchester has already submitted a proposal and other areas considering them include the West Midlands, Tyne and Wear, Cambridgeshire, Shropshire, Durham, East Midlands, Reading, Norfolk and Bristol.
At the same time the DfT has published an interim report into delivering more targeted enforcement for foreign vehicles. The report considered four options: a UK vignette collection of data from government sources collection of data from industry sources and a voluntary registration scheme. It concludes that none of the four offers acceptable value for money and instead suggests the DfT favours EC proposals for sharing national freight data across member states and argues for these databases to include vehicle registrations. Under EC proposals, individual national databases would be connected by 2010.
Theo de Pencier, chief executive at the Freight Transport Association, has expressed disappointment with the report. "To suggest that none of the schemes proposed would result on safety benefits is frustrating and surprising. There can be no doubt that the provision of more and better information as foreign lorries enter the UK would substantially aid our enforcement authorities." However he says the pre-Budget report did provide a commitment to funding long-term transport infrastructure, but is disappointed there is apparently little prospect of substantial investment in the short-term and therefore freight's day-to-day operation seems doomed to continue to experience further congestion on increasingly worn-out roads.
Jack Semple, director of policy at the Road Haulage Association, says he's a "little bit disappointed but not hugely surprised" about the government's response to the vignette. "The vignette was strongest of the options, which led to a misperception of how much the gap can be closed it was adrift from what was possible under EU rules. It shouldn't be seen as a tax issue. It is seen as a means to an end, but that's not the primary aim of this project."
Commenting on the rest of the pre-Budget report, Semple says: "We were very disappointed regarding the lack of comment on the Eddington report, particularly regarding roads. "We are not hearing enough about what's being done to reduce congestion and the lack of infrastructure on roads."
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