星空传媒

Just recently this magazine reported on Jessica, a new European Investment Bank (EIB) scheme (February 2007). Jessica will make 鈧�90bn of urban regeneration funding available over the next six years, pulling in additional private sector funds as opposed to the more traditional approach of EC cash simply being given as a grant.

The excitement was such that English Partnerships鈥� corporate strategy director Trevor Beattie was reported to be organising a meeting with EIB to ensure that the nine English regional development agencies didn鈥檛 鈥渇all over each other鈥� in bidding for schemes.

As Jessica was being courted as the source of a glorious future for regeneration funding, here in the UK another source of potential regeneration funding, the draft Local Transport Bill, one of the 23 bills in Gordon Brown鈥檚 first legislative programme, (and the already established TIF 鈥� Transport Innovation Fund), has been drifting by almost unrecognised.

It is perhaps easy to see why. It is hard to get beyond the headlines of 鈥淗ow Much?鈥� and the ongoing debate as to the rights and wrongs of paying to use our highway network. But this is what we must do if we are to control the impact of traffic on our environment and economy and allow our urban areas to regenerate and grow.

A small number of local authorities are actually applying for TIF funding. Established by the Department for Transport (DfT) to incentivise local authorities to develop and deploy 鈥渟marter, innovative, local and regional transport strategies鈥�, it rewards those authorities looking beyond 鈥渟oft鈥� demand management (travel planning, car sharing etc) to measures such as road user charging.

The debate about reducing congestion and its effects must recognise how we are to encourage people to change their behaviour and their relationship with the car. Unfortunately the heated discussion has focused so far on whether the relevant authority is prepared to charge the motorist 鈥� and how much 鈥� with little or no consideration of the potentially positive impact on our wider communities.

Road pricing is part of a wider overhaul of public transport infrastructure. It is really about choice, not charging

A vital point has also been missed: road pricing on its own will solve nothing. The key consideration is how we can use it to bring real choice back into our commuting habits and for it to be the catalyst for the wider regeneration, and growth, of our urban communities. Furthermore, it is an inescapable fact that road pricing in urban areas has to happen 鈥� it is as inevitable as the motorway was in the 1950s.

The key to understanding how road pricing can aid urban regeneration is to firstly consider it as part of a wider overhaul of public transport infrastructure in our urban areas. It is really about choice, not charging 鈥� there鈥檚 no point making the motorist pay to drive on city roads at peak times if the public transport infrastructure from bus to rail, cycle path to pedestrian walkway, is not safe, clean and reliable.

It is this wider overhaul in public transport that is the key to road pricing and regeneration and it is actually where the draft Local Transport Bill and TIF funding implies we should focus. A successfully implemented road pricing scheme, with real up-front investment in public transport, can create an investment fund that can open up a host of opportunities for improvements such as HomeZones (residential streets designed for pedestrians and cyclists rather than motorists) and sustainable housing, as well as a brand new No 23 bus.

In terms of finance, through an initial partnership scheme with the private sector a city should be able to recoup, within 10-20 years, its initial investment to fund a new transport infrastructure through local schemes such as road pricing, integrated finance options for public transport such as Oyster cards, and workplace parking charges. However, it is the fund created from that initial partnership scheme that provides the money, not only for the overhaul in public transport infrastructure, but for wider community regeneration schemes.

The specific regeneration benefits of successfully implementing a road pricing scheme as part of an overhaul of the wider public transport infrastructure include:

• Economic growth: Roadspace is freed up by the migration of those on the school run, and other short rush hour journeys, to other forms of public transport. This is a vital outcome when we consider the independent Eddington report which estimated that by 2025 congestion could cost road users between 拢22-24bn more than today.
• Equality: Helps provide a safer, cleaner and more reliable public transport system bringing mobility to all, particularly socio-economic groups who rely on such services and the more vulnerable members of society such as pensioners. It can also enable the regeneration of run-down areas on the back of a good transport infrastructure.
• City centre management: Brings an integrated approach to management of the city environment including road space, public transport, bus lane and parking enforcement, security (via the use of CCTV), maintenance management, information, etc.
• The high street: Improved public transport links can help boost urban shopping centres by challenging out-of-town retail parks.
• Environment: Besides the need to consider European clean air directives which are also coming into force, a new public transport infrastructure with less reliance on cars will greatly reduce emissions.

The draft Local Transport Bill and TIF are not just about road pricing or major overhauls in public transport and reductions in congestion during the school run; they are about the potential to sustainably regenerate communities, not in 10 years, but now.