Local sustainable transport fund survives ending of coalition Government

Behaviour change: more people are cycling to work in some areas

Behaviour change: more people are cycling to work in some areas

The Chancellor has found £500m to continue the Local Sustainable Transport Fund this Parliament.

There will be £100m available in 2016/17 and each of the following years, the Comprehensive Spending Review documents reveal. The LSTF was a programme to promote changes in travel behaviour secured by the Lib Dem transport minister Norman Baker in the last Parliament and was due to end after the current financial year - although former transport minister Baroness Kramer wanted the Local Growth Fund to continue funding LSTF schemes in this Parliament.

The money is part of the capital settlement for the DfT in the Spending Review, in which operational spending is cut by 37% by the end of the Parliament. ACT Travelwise said the £500m funding, and £80m in revenue to accompany it, would "build on the legacy of LSTF". 

Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin says that by investing in sustainable transport as well as in roads and railways, "we are delivering the long-term commitments necessary to provide security and opportunity for working people".