Government’s active travel budget cuts were unlawful, rules Court of Appeal

Cuts made by the Treasury to the DfT’s cycling and walking funding budget in March 2023 were unlawful, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

In a unanimous decision, the Court of Appeal ruled in Transport Action Network’s favour. In May 2024 a High Court Judge dismissed the campaign group’s challenge to the previous government’s decision to cut more than £200m from its active travel budget (LTT893).

The Government last published a Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS) in July 2022, promising record funding on the basis that investing in better conditions for walking and cycling was “one of the best return on investment decisions governments can make” that would be “saving our NHS billions of pounds each year”.

However, shortly before confirming the spring statement in March 2023, the Treasury ordered the DfT to cut £200m of dedicated funding for active travel, said Chris Todd, TAN’s Director. “Though this decision was criticised by both the National Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee of MPs, the cuts were never reversed,” he said. TAN filed a legal challenge in June but the High Court in May 2024 accepted the DfT’s defence that the funding it had promised was just a “guestimate”, said Todd.

The Court of Appeal took a different view on Tuesday 10 June. Lady Justice Elisabeth Laing said: ”There is nothing vague about a requirement to ‘specify the resources to be made available by the Secretary of State’.

“The word is ‘specify’ not ‘project’, ‘estimate’ or ‘guess’... that is what Parliament has required, and if the Secretary of State finds it inconvenient, or ‘impractical’ to comply with the procedure for variation, then the Secretary of State can persuade Parliament to amend the legislation. The remedy is not to read in words which are not in section 21, or to ignore the words which are in section 21.”

Chris Todd said: “Given how good walking and cycling is for the economy, for improving access to jobs, for the NHS and people’s health, in fact all of Labour’s missions, it has been a mystery why Labour continued defending a Conservative cut. It doesn’t make sense unless Rachel Reeves has been captured by the Treasury groupthink.

“Investing in small scale schemes, rather than glossy mega-projects like roads, means higher returns for the country and real benefits for communities.”

However, for procedural reasons, the court could not order the return of the £200m funding as the cut was for the period up to March 2025 and the appeal was heard after that date, said Todd. “TAN is now seeking an immediate £250m boost, consisting of the cut funding plus interest and adjusted for inflation,” he said.

The previous CWIS expired in March 2025, and the 2025 targets are set to be missed, said TAN. It is calling for the DfT to comply with its legal obligation of providing a progress report to Parliament, as the last report was in July 2022. It is also calling for a public consultation, the last having been in 2016, to inform the level of ambition in the overdue CWIS3.

Ralph Smyth, TAN’s consultant, said: “Official advice revealed in the case said that cycling and walking funding could be cut more easily than large projects locked into long contracts. That was exactly why Parliament voted to give this extra protection to healthy travel schemes. It’s brilliant to see this law finally working as it was intended. We are now calling on the DfT and Treasury to work with us to Get Britain Building a world leading future for walking and cycling.”

The Government is understood to be seeking permission to appeal to the Supreme Court

A DfT spokesperson told LTT: “The reduction in active travel funding in March 2023 was under the previous Government and the current Government has reversed these cuts both last year and this year. We’ve noted the decision of the Court of Appeal and we are considering next steps.

“We’re investing nearly £300m to build up to 300 miles of new cycle lanes and pavements to help more people cycle, walk, wheel and scoot. This will lead to 43,000 fewer sick days every to year to ease pressure off the NHS and add £1.4bn to the economy, helping us deliver our Plan for Change.”