The Department for Transport (DfT) has confirmed that it is continuing work on the new long-term transport strategy first planned by former secretary of state Louise Haigh, albeit with a potentially different emphasis.
In November, shortly before she resigned by over an old minor conviction, Ms Haigh set out her ‘vision for more joined up and locally-led transport across England’, underpinned by the first new Integrated National Transport Strategy in a quarter of a century.
This week, a DfT spokesperson told Highways: ‘We are committed to developing a long-term strategy for transport, ensuring transport infrastructure can be delivered efficiently and on time, and will set out further details on schemes as part of the Spending Review.’
The DfT said in November that it was also reforming its appraisal system, ‘so that projects deliver good value for money as well as the right outcomes’, supported an ‘internal review’ of its capital spend portfolio by a panel of external experts.
Highways asked the department for an update on the status of its work to reform the appraisal system and review its capital spending.
It indicated that work to reform the appraisal system would result in the publication of a new Appraisal and Modelling Strategy.
This work is expected to be led by the DfT’s recently appointed chief analyst and chief economist, Ian Mulheirn, who was an economic adviser to the Treasury during the last Labour government, but has since worked at a range of non-governmental organisations.
In October, the DfT published a contract notice for a Transport Appraisal and Modelling Panel, which it described as ‘an advisory panel which provides independent advice to the Secretary of State for Transport on strategic considerations for the department’s capital portfolio’.
It said: ‘Applications are invited from both individuals able to act as expert panel members and companies putting forward nominated individuals who will act as expert panel members.’
Following criticism of the Capital Review Panel in the press, the DfT stressed that decisions around the future of existing infrastructure schemes or new schemes are solely made by the current transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, and that any advice to her from the panel is confidential.
Since coming to power, the new Government has already cancelled a number of existing road and other transport schemes, first in July – including the £2bn A303 Stonehenge scheme – and then in the October budget.
