Justin Ward was in conversation with Johnny Sharp

In January 2025, the UK government issued a “call for ideas” as part of its plans to publish an Integrated National Transport Strategy later this year. One of the messages CIHT has consistently put forward is how important transport is for delivering the government’s plans. At CIHT, we feel there’s a key opportunity for the government to align this with various other strategies – particularly their industrial strategy, centred around investing in economic growth areas.

These areas have transport connectivity at their heart, because if people can't get to jobs, or can’t get there in an affordable way, then they won’t reach their potential. They need to be accessible to everyone, with good provision for sustainable travel, public transport, disabled travellers, and more within those routes.

The government’s economic growth mission centres around industrial clusters, spread across the country. This idea of housing various industries together – like Silicon Glen in Scotland where you have areas of tech startups, for instance – is geared around getting people together, so they need transport to work well to make that happen. 

Long-term funding

Another issue that we have been highlighting is the importance of long-term funding. If businesses and local authorities know there is a clear horizon of funding, then that certainty enables both sides to feel they can work on potential solutions together.

Having a procurement framework that enables businesses and local authorities to work in genuine partnership is essential, and creates confidence that they can, for instance, invest in new technology, or secure the purchase of aggregate for a longer-term period at a better cost, thus reducing the inflationary risks.

That is now working for National Highways quite well and the recent Spending Review seems to reflect that the government now understands the importance of long-term funding too. 

It makes intuitive sense, but now at CIHT we want to try and spell out those benefits with hard evidence, because it has sometimes seemed a little lacking. We want to be able to demonstrate to ministers that a long-term funding approach does work, as this is something I think the Department for Transport understands, but they sometimes need stronger evidence to help make that argument to the Treasury. 

Our goal should be to illustrate clearly that if the sector is able to plan more effectively, it will be more efficient, and therefore you'll be getting ‘more bang for your buck’, and the government can show it is delivering better value for the taxpayer.

Public health key

A third area where I feel CIHT can continue to spread a strong message is around the public health benefits of a good transport policy.
That’s one reason why it’s worth investing in infrastructure for active travel – the environment is key to making people feel comfortable. Whether it’s travelling sustainably on public transport, or protected cycleways and footways that feel safe and well lit, if you don't create a good environment, it won’t work.

We’ve got Sir Chris Whitty lined up for our Learned Society Lecture this year, and I expect he’ll agree that there’s a link between public health and active travel. It was calculated recently that around one in six deaths in the UK is associated with inactivity. It’s also a huge burden on the NHS, particularly with an increasingly ageing society. So, we’re keen to spread that message and see it recognised in the Integrated National Transport Strategy later this year

Then finally, of course, if these messages can cut through, we want to see the next Spending Review ensure that transport has a good line in its budget to deliver all these ambitions. Because without the funding, it’s just words.

Read CIHT’s full analysis of the government’s Spending Review.

Image: Justin Ward, Head of Policy & Technical Practice, CIHT.