Railways: Finance

Norman Baker
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much has been spent on (a) railways and (b) roads, including Highways Agency allocations for each year of the Department’s existence; and what the projected figures are for 2008-09.

Mr. Tom Harris
[holding answer 16 May 2008]: The information requested is as follows:

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|                 |Outturn|Estimated outturn|Plans  |
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|                 |2002-03|2003-04          |2004-05|2005-06|2006-07|2007-08|2008-09|
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|Rail             |3390   |4236             |4252   |3608|4632|4450|3700|
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|                 |       |                 |       |||||
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|Roads            |4816   |4912             |5496   |6159|6970|7400|7827|
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|Of which:        |       |                 |       |||||
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|Highways Agency  |4209   |4283             |4769   |5405|6204|6460|6937|
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|Other roads spend|607    |629              |727    |754|766|940|890|
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The Department also provides funding to local authorities via the Department’s Integrated Transport Block and for Local Authority Major Schemes, as follows:

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|                                         |2002-03|2003-04|2004-05|2005-06|2006-07|2007-08|2008-09|
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|Funding provided to LAs (including roads)|915    |933    |717    |659    |631    |892    |1043   |
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Local authorities spend this funding both on road-related schemes and public transport projects. It is not possible to disaggregate the data between the different types of project.

Stephen Hammond
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport to what schemes her Department plans to allocate funding from the Designated Community Rail Fund.

Mr. Tom Harris
The Designated Community Rail Development Fund is a new initiative intended to assist with locally based schemes such as small scale station improvements (signage, seating, landscaping, artwork), promotions (web-sites, leaflets, posters, special events) and community engagement (work with schools, youth clubs, groups who are from socially excluded groups).

The mix of schemes that will be funded will depend on what applications are made by Community Rail Partnerships on designated routes.