Further CIHT analysis of the UK governmental Spending Review 2025.
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CIHT welcomes the Spending Review, delivered on 11th June 2025 by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP.
The designation of allocated funding highlights a positive focus from the government on local and public transport networks and continuous efforts to reach the nation’s Net Zero Goals.
Transport plays a pivotal role in delivering the government’s missions and enhancing economic growth, as CIHT has highlighted in ‘Unlocking the benefits of long term funding for local roads’:
a long-term funding model can help advance wider government priorities, delivering enhanced value for communities in...key areas such as decarbonisation, resilience and social value
While the announcements will have a positive impact on the sector, CIHT urges the government to continue to strengthen focus on proactive maintenance of the UK’s road infrastructure. Especially considering the impacts of climate change and the need to future-proof highway infrastructure from increasingly extreme weather events.
The Spending Review presented the government’s committed to providing £24bn of capital funding between 2026‑27 and 2029‑30 to maintain and improve motorways and local roads across the country.
This funding is allocated for National Highways and local authorities to invest in improving the long-term condition of England’s road network, delivering safer and more reliable journeys.
Highlighted in CIHT’s ‘Unlocking the Benefits of Long-Term Funding for Local Roads’, the Spending Review represents a critical opportunity to place the funding for maintenance and management of England’s local roads on a more strategic, long-term footing, comparable to similar five-year settlements already in place for the Strategic Road Network (SRN) and the rail sector.
CIHT demonstrated that:
These models have demonstrated clear benefits in terms of efficiency, planning, and delivery. A similar five-year funding settlement for local authority highway maintenance, paired with improved working practices, has the potential to generate efficiencies of 5–10% on the current expenditure levels of £21.9 billion. Over a five-year period, this could unlock between £1 billion and £2.2 billion for reinvestment in the local road network.
CIHT also welcomes the announcement of a four-year settlement for Transport for London "to provide certainty and stability for our largest local transport network to plan for the future".
The government has committed to £4.2 bn in funding over three years, to build and maintain flood defences, protecting communities across England from the dangers of flooding. This signals that the government is recognising the necessity to move towards increasing the UK’s resilience to the effects of climate change and to protect the ecosystems that underpin the economy and food security.
CIHT welcome these commitments and has previously called for adaptation and resilience to be made an immediate policy priority and investment, as featured in ‘Delivering a resilient transport network’.
The report highlighted that:
Investment in maintenance of our existing highways and infrastructure to ensure continued, efficient use of the network. Incremental adaptation and proactive maintenance of infrastructure are crucial to improving resilience and meeting decarbonisation goals.
The Chancellor announced the commitment to £2.6 bn capital investment to decarbonise transport from 2026-27 to 2029-30.
The government is showing a commitment to meeting its legally binding carbon budgets and to achieving Net Zero by 2050. The government will set out further details in its next Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan, expected to be published in October 2025.
The Chancellor also used the Spending Review as an opportunity to reaffirm governmental support for the expansion of Heathrow Airport with a third runaway, previously announced in January 2025.
CIHT welcomes the government’s commitment to UK economic growth. Investment in transport infrastructure must form an intrinsic part of any growth agenda. However, CIHT believes that this growth must be sustainably delivered.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC), the government’s independent advisor on achieving Net Zero, has recommended that any airport expansion should not go ahead until a UK wide capacity management framework is in place that can assess and where necessary control the aviation sector’s Green House Gas emissions.
CIHT endorses the CCC’s advice and calls on:
The Department for Transport to work with the Devolved Administrations to develop a framework that shows how the emissions from additional flights generated by airport expansion can be accommodated without exceeding the allowance given in the UK’s carbon budget. The support for airport expansion must be consistent with a credible pathway to Net Zero by 2050.
CIHT also calls for all airport expansions proposals to be presented with additional resilience assessments.
This will help to identify critical vulnerabilities and necessary adaptations, allowing remedial actions to be prioritised and identifying the responsible parties. This should also apply to connected transport assets and neighbouring utilities where risks and impacts are clearly inter-twined.
The criticality of this key point is highlighted by the recent emergency closure of Heathrow Airport (21 March 2025) and also affirms the need for updated appraisal guidance to include resilience as a fundamental part of the business case process.
The government pledged to continue supporting the uptake of electric vehicles, including vans and HGVs, by investing £400 million to support the rollout of charging infrastructure, building on the almost 80,000 public charging devices already available.
CIHT welcomes this announcement and is looking forward to working with industry to support the delivery of the EV charging infrastructure.
CIHT is currently undertaking a research project aimed at understanding the issues and challenges associated with rolling out EV charging infrastructure across the UK.
Find out more here: CIHT opens call for evidence on Challenges in Rolling Out Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Infrastructure | CIHT
Positive announcements for local transport and active travel from the Spending Review, include:
Providing around £900 million per year to maintain and improve bus services, including taking forward franchising pilots in areas including York and North Yorkshire and Cheshire West and Cheshire West and Chester. [this amount was originally £750 million per year in the spending review but amended to £900 million in a subsequent correction slip]
Extending the £3 bus fare cap – due to end this year – by over a year until March 2027, covering 5,000 bus routes and supporting with cost-of-living pressures.
£15bn of investment of funding for local transport projects in England’s city regions – including South Yorkshire, the North East, the East Midlands and Tees Valley, announced on 4th June.
Investing £616 million to build and maintain walking and cycling infrastructure.
CIHT welcomes this investment into active travel, having previously outlined the health benefits associated with walking, wheeling and cycling in our policy brief ‘Making the Case for Investment in Active Travel | CIHT’.
In CIHT’s representation to the Spending Review, CIHT called for consistent funding to reshape the required infrastructure and services to holistically promote walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport networks.
As further detailed in the CIHT exclusive members’ article ‘Potholes and poorly maintained footways: The cost to the NHS | CIHT’, maintenance funding is urgently required to address local road faults e.g. surface defects issues, to ensure that footways and cycleways remain in adequate condition and remain accessible all year round.
Well-funded transport networks play a key role in reducing the burden of chronic health conditions on the NHS through the preventative benefits of active lifestyles.
CIHT looks forward to further promoting the relationship between transport and health in the upcoming report, ‘Improving Health Through Active Travel’ (due to be published in Autumn 2025).
Additionally, CIHT welcome the extension of the £3 bus fare cap, which CIHT called for in our representation to the Spending Review. The extension will build on the positive shift to increased bus travel because of subsidised bus fares.
The government has announced that it will be investing £1.2bn for apprenticeships and training.
CIHT welcome this announcement as in the CIHT manifesto A transport network fit for all our futures, CIHT called on the government to ensure there is a skilled workforce with the capacity and capability to deliver improvement in the sector by investing in future skills.
CIHT welcomes this commitment to the promotion of skills through investment in the Spending Review and highlights the need for increased skills investment in the planning sector to meet the government's aim of delivering 1.5 million homes in England.
In CIHT’s representation to the Spending Review, CIHT highlighted the need for consistent investment in technical skills and expertise in transport planning at a local level to deliver on the government’s housebuilding aspirations.
Upskilling is a necessity to maximise the impact of a shift to ‘vision-led’ transport planning. An increase in support is needed to ensure that local authorities have capacity to meet the targets set for them and make sure developments are built in the right places, with adequate transport links considered.
The CIHT report, ‘Creating a public realm for all’, highlights the importance of funding for disability equality awareness training for all local authority personnel who are designing and changing the public realm.
The government has allocated £2bn for Artificial Intelligence (AI) implementation to help deliver on the commitment to harness the transformative and innovative potential of AI technology.
The government has stressed that collaboration between business and the UK’s world-class universities is needed, and the funding will aim to develop new AI courses, launch new AI fellowships, and establish a prestigious new AI talent scholarship, designed to develop the AI skills of the future.
CIHT welcomes this commitment to support AI through investment.
In the CIHT report, ‘The role of data and artificial intelligence in achieving transport decarbonisation’, CIHT emphasises that:
local authorities and national bodies will be key to rolling out AI in public services such as transport, and so should be given appropriate funding, guidance, and procurement frameworks to do this successfully. It is important that investment in skills and training extends to local authorities to ensure that local government is equipped with the resources to fully harness AI.
The Chancellor further announced that the 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy and the Industrial Strategy White Paper will be released later in June 2025. CIHT is looking forward to reviewing the strategies and working with government departments towards their implementation.
CIHT previously submitted evident to the 10 Year Infrastructure strategy Working Paper, saying:
“CIHT welcomes the Treasury's commitment to a long-term, UK-wide infrastructure strategy. CIHT has long called for a vision-led approach that establishes clear priorities for infrastructure to support both the economy and society, aligned with the government's broader missions.”
CIHT, in the submission, additionally called for:
Treasury to prioritise funding for maintenance and renewals of the existing transport infrastructure before committing to building new ones. Specifically, CIHT calls for addressing the backlog in local transport maintenance that is critical to ensure resilience and reliability.
Integrated planning for new infrastructure: When building new infrastructure, such as housing, it is vital to consider from the outset how other systems, particularly transport, will support and connect to these developments. Transport planning should be an integral part of housing strategies to ensure cohesive and sustainable outcomes.
the strategy to consider the interdependencies between infrastructure systems, such as transport, telecoms, and water management. Climate change and increasingly frequent extreme weather events highlight how failures in one system (e.g. water management) can cascade across others, causing widespread disruption.
On the Industrial Strategy, CIHT submitted a response to the “Invest 2035: the UK’s modern industrial strategy” consultation, where CIHT highlighted:
CIHT welcome the focus on the 8 strategic sectors, especially those supporting green industries and new technologies... the current methodology overlooks sector interdependencies and the essential role of critical services - transport being a prime example.
As outlined in CIHT’s manifesto, A transport network fit for all our futures | CIHT, a robust transport network is essential to achieving the UK industrial strategy’s core objectives. Having effective and accessible highways, transportation networks and services will stimulate the UK economy, increase employment opportunities, improve air quality, deliver on net zero and improve the health of society.
The Spending Review also committed £39 billion to a new 10-year Affordable Housing Programme.
In the representation to the Spending Review, CIHT called for investment in new affordable housing that is well-connected and serviced by affordable and sustainable transport means.
“People need homes where sustainable transport infrastructure is ready on day one. Building homes first and considering connectivity later will simply entrench car dependent behaviours if people are not provided with credible alternatives for travel when they move in, and it is vital that this is supported in the Affordable Homes Programme. It is imperative the Government’s plans to deliver ‘the biggest boost to affordable and social housing in a generation’ does not create affordable homes in hard-to-reach areas, which will only serve to widen inequalities.”
The full government Spending Review Document is available to read here.
CIHT looks forward to continuing to work with HM Treasury, the Department for Transport, and other government departments to ensure that the UK’s transport network is fit for all our futures.
For further information please contact technical@ciht.org.uk
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