Haigh signals multi-year funds to build active travel network

The Labour government will invest "unprecedented levels of funding" in cycling and walking as a critical part of plans to improve health and reduce inequality, the new secretary for transport has said.

- Laura Laker

A national network of safe cycle routes could cut GP appointments "by hundreds of thousands, if not millions a year" by helping people incorporate more physical activity into their lives, said Louise Haigh, who also sits on the government's health mission delivery board.

She added that access to safe cycle routes was "essential" to tackling the country's carbon footprint.

"We're in a climate crisis. We're in a public health crisis. Getting people walking and cycling and moving more are essential to solving both of those in the immediate term and in the long term," she said. "There's lots of evidence to show that will reduce the number of GP appointments by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, a year."

Transport is the largest single contributor to the UK's carbon emissions, and while cycling wasn't specifically in the Labour manifesto, bar a reference to "active travel" - a catchall term for walking, cycling and wheeling, as wheelchair and mobility aid users do - Haigh says it will be "utterly essential to developing our national integrated transport strategy".

The strategy will include longterm funding settlements, which Haigh says will save money and improve the consistency of transport networks, particularly walking and cycling routes, including the National Cycle Network, which is run by the charity Sustrans.