Centre for Cities response to Rail White Paper

Date: 24/07/2007

Commenting on the launch of today’s Rail White Paper, Dermot Finch, Director Centre for Cities, said:

“Many of the big projects in today’s Rail White Paper, such as the redevelopment of Birmingham’s New Street Station, have been on the cards for some time. If England’s cities had greater powers to raise and spend their own money for transport projects like these, commuters would see improvements happening more quickly and more efficiently.

“The Government promised last week to devolve more financial power to England’s cities and towns. This would help local leaders to respond more efficiently to transport needs in their area, and deliver the improvements that commuters, and the entire economy, need.”

Notes to editors

• Today’s Rail White Paper includes the Government’s investment plan for the railways from 2009 to 2014 (High-Level Output Statement) and a longer-term 30-year strategy for the railway network. Projects announced for 2009-2014 include:
  
  
  1. The long-delayed redevelopment of Birmingham New Street Station
  2. Redevelopment of Reading Station and signalling infrastructure
  3. Improvement of the Thameslink infrastructure and service across London
  4. 1,300 new carriages, longer platforms and better signalling, to deal with overcrowding, especially in the South East.
     
     
• The White Paper carries forward some of the key conclusions of the Eddington Transport Study, which recommended investment in existing infrastructure, improving rail access to city centres, and greater investment in ‘growing urban areas and their catchments’ rather than higher-profile projects such as a new North-South high-speed rail link.
  
• The Sub-National Review of Economic Development and Regeneration, published by HM Treasury on 17th July, stated that “there is considerable potential for the more widespread use by local authorities of flexible and innovative financing mechanisms to finance infrastructure and growth”. Government will report on this by November’s Pre-Budget Report, with implementation of new initiatives likely in the 2008 Budget.
  
• Connecting Cities, published by the Centre for Cities in May 2007, found that cities require greater financial flexibility, such as Supplementary Business Rates, to invest in local transport priorities. A 2p business rate ‘top up’ in Birmingham City would yield £15.4m per year, and support a ten-year loan of £118m. This would have eliminated the £114m funding gap that has held back the redevelopment of New Street Station for the last five years.
  
• The Centre for Cities is an independent research unit, taking a fresh look at how UK cities work. It is currently based at the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr), and is due to spin out from ippr in October 2007.