Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding from the public purse has been allocated to transport infrastructure projects in each region of England in each of the past three years; and what estimate he has made of that funding per head of population in those regions.

Figures on public sector expenditure at a regional level are part of the Government’s Country and Regional Analysis (CRA) statistics.

The latest CRA statistics, published by HM Treasury in November 2017, present data up to 2016-17 and are published at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/country-and-regional-analysis.

The statistics include spend on transport by all public sector organisations including the Department for Transport, Local Authorities, Public Corporations (in the case of transport, this is mainly spend by London Underground) and other Government Departments including devolved administrations.

When assessing expenditure across regions it is important to compare like with like. The benefits from spend on transport interventions often accrue to people far beyond the residents of the immediate local area or region. This is particularly the case for spending on the railways which connect cities and regions across the country and deliver broader benefits beyond the region concerned. Furthermore, when expenditure is presented on a “per head of population”(or “per capita”) basis, it does not account for the pressure that large numbers of commuters and visitors from outside a region can add to the transport networks. In addition, larger built-up areas tend to make greater use of mass public transport systems, though these will generate fares income which contributes to their operating costs.

Statistics for public sector capital expenditure by region are given in Table 1 below. Table 2 provides the equivalent statistics per capita. Capital expenditure has been used as a proxy for spending on infrastructure specifically.

Table 1: Capital spending on all transport, by all public sector bodies

£millions nominal

¹Due to the reclassification of Network Rail into the public sector from 2015-16, care should be taken when making historical comparisons.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/country-and-regional-analysis-2017

Table 2: Capital spending, on all transport, by all public sector bodies, per capita

£s nominal

¹Due to the reclassification of Network Rail into the public sector from 2015-16, care should be taken when making historical comparisons.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/country-and-regional-analysis-2017

For future years, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s (IPA) National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline (NCIP) 2017 shows regional transport spend. Analysis of the NCIP shows that central government transport investment is more balanced across regions than previous reports have suggested. The table below sets out the allocation of central government transport capital spending in the pipeline between 2017/18 and 2020/21, per head and across regions ^[1]

^[1] As this table only looks at transport capital spending funded by central government, TfL expenditure is excluded. TfL’s capital programme is funded by a mixture of locally-retained business rates and fare receipts from TfL-operated services, and from 2017/18 onwards it receives no direct central government funding. However, DfT does directly fund major transport projects across London, such as Crossrail, and Thameslink

^[1] As this table only looks at transport capital spending funded by central government, TfL expenditure is excluded. TfL’s capital programme is funded by a mixture of locally-retained business rates and fare receipts from TfL-operated services, and from 2017/18 onwards it receives no direct central government funding. However, DfT does directly fund major transport projects across London, such as Crossrail, and Thameslink