http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23060592
Don't know how much that will affect Scotland, but England plans include -
More roads.
Cuts for Culture and community sports - but not elite.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Spending Review
(11 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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An extra £300m in capital spending for SG. They could give it to local authorities or Sustrans to spend on infrastructure.
Posted 12 years ago # -
This increase is for 2015/16 though, effectively two years away. It is also coupled with a cut in the Scottish revenue budget in the region of 2%, due to negative Barnett consequentials - so no money found down the back of the couch for cycling in the near future (although that may change before the UK general election).
Posted 12 years ago # -
But capital spending is up - so may be some cycling money from that?
Posted 12 years ago # -
I think the Minister for Motorways has already spent that money 15 times over on new roads
Posted 12 years ago # -
Most of the extra capital budget is to be raised through SG enhanced borrowing powers: it's not a grant from taxation revenues. So that will presumably need to be paid back over a period of time from revenue budgets which are declining in real terms.
Although Scotland has done relatively well compared to some other (English) departments, as kaputnik notes the transport budget is already over-committed for the next decade or more! Back when Alex Neil was leading the infrastructure brief I posted here SG's capital projects 'pipeline' document. Can't find the link just now, but essentially if you have read that then none of the capital project announcements comes as any surprise. Cycling infrastructure is, also unsurprisingly, barely mentioned at all in the 'pipeline'.
So I would not expect anything to change at central government level with regards to cycling spend. The best we can hope for is that local authorities push forward with more cycle-friendly plans (supported where possible by cycle campaigners).
Posted 12 years ago # -
If they have any sense or political nous I imagine they'll use the Barnett consequentials to make revenue commitments in areas that may prove popular in the run-up to the referendum. For instance, there has been some discussion that the SG has the power to offset the impact of the bedroom tax. If I had just been handed a bit of a windfall, I'd probably do something like that to differentiate life in the union to independence. I couldn't help noticing Yes Scotland's extensive retweeting of the calamitous reactions by various national organisations.
Posted 12 years ago # -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23074245
"Treasury Minister Danny Alexander said the plans put "long-term priorities before short-term political pressures"
0_0
Posted 12 years ago # -
The road building programme was the largest for 40 years
Give me strength.
Posted 12 years ago # -
But we need more roads! So that all the cars that have filled the existing roads have somewhere else to go. Then the problem will be totally solved forever and forever and we will never find ourselves stuck in any sort of repetitive cycle of roadbuilding followed by congestion followed by more roadbuilding....
Posted 12 years ago # -
" “Investing in Britain’s future”: The zombie arguments rise again."
http://rdrf.org.uk/2013/06/28/investing-in-britains-future-the-zombie-arguments-rise-again
Posted 12 years ago #
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