The Department is investing an unprecedented £2 billion in active travel schemes over the course of this Parliament. This is the biggest ever boost for cycling and walking. The funding will be spent on a wide range of measures in England, as set out in the Prime Minister’s July 2020 Gear Change plan. The provision of high-quality infrastructure is vital to getting people cycling and walking. As part of the plan the Department is also investing in the National Cycle Network, which currently consists of 12,763 miles of cycling and walking routes across the UK.

The final details of the £2 billion funding package are still to be determined and will be confirmed in due course. The funding applies to England only, but any funding on top of the Department for Transport’s current budgets will have Barnett Consequentials applied in the usual way.

The Government’s statutory Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, published in April 2017, outlines £1.2 billion of funding that may be invested in cycling and walking in England over the period to 2021. Since the Strategy’s publication, the Government has made further support available for cycling and walking infrastructure in England, through the National Productivity Investment Fund, Housing Infrastructure Fund, Transforming Cities Fund and Clean Air Fund. Decisions on allocating funding for greenways and dedicated cycle networks are for local authorities, who allocate and/or bid for funding alongside other local priorities. In addition, the Department for Transport is providing 44 local authorities in England with access to expert support to assist in the development of ten-year Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans. This support will enable authorities to map their future cycle networks and to prioritise future investments.

Funding for infrastructure projects and local plans to support higher levels of cycling and walking in the rest of the UK is a matter for the devolved administrations.