Criticism from KPMG for Chancellor’s summer budget

KPMG has criticised the UK Chancellor for lack of investment in regional transport infrastructure in his Summer Budget 2015. Chris Hearld, chairman for KPMG in the North, said: “Once again we have seen the Northern Powerhouse being a key plank to the Chancellor’s Budget announcement. We have always maintained that for the Northern Powerhouse to succeed, all parts of the region need to be brought on board, so it was encouraging to hear that following the lead set by Manchester, devolution deals are in the
July 9, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
1981 KPMG has criticised the UK Chancellor for lack of investment in regional transport infrastructure in his Summer Budget 2015.

Chris Hearld, chairman for KPMG in the North, said: “Once again we have seen the Northern Powerhouse being a key plank to the Chancellor’s Budget announcement. We have always maintained that for the Northern Powerhouse to succeed, all parts of the region need to be brought on board, so it was encouraging to hear that following the lead set by Manchester, devolution deals are in the pipeline for the likes of Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield.”
 
However, he said it was disappointing that no further announcements were made regarding investments in regional transport infrastructure. While the introduction of an Oyster card system across the North is a nice gesture in principal, he believes it will do nothing to alleviate the lack of capacity and very little to improve the connectivity on the region’s ever-crumbling rail network.
 
James Stamp, head of transport at KPMG UK also commented on the Chancellor’s commitment to invest in UK roads. He noted that in his last budget, the Chancellor announced a major road investment program worth US$23 billion. The Summer Budget included a promise to ‘ring fence’ the vehicle excise duty, or road tax, providing some clarity about where funding for the ambitious road projects will be found.

However, Stamp said, “We note that while road tax raises around US$9 billion per year, this is dwarfed by income collected from fuel duty which is around US$41.5 billion. We believe that more of this income should be reinvested in roads and transport infrastructure in line with the Chancellor’s statement that money raised from drivers should be spent on the roads they drive on.”

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • President’s transportation budget ‘takes the next step’, says ITS America
    February 10, 2016
    Announcing President Obama’s US$98.1 billion Fiscal Year 2017 Budget for the US Department of Transportation (DOT), Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said, “Meeting future challenges will require a long-term vision for the transportation sector that includes more and cleaner options, and expands those options to communities across the country. This budget brings us closer to that vision.” The Budget addresses the DOT’s top priority, safety, with investments in the safe integration of emerging techno
    Read More
  • Investment and innovation the future of ITS
    January 31, 2012
    Cisco's Paul Brubaker, former administrator of the US Department of Transportation's (USDOT's) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), takes a look at how the ITS sector is starting to attract the attention of major corporations and what this will mean for intelligent transportation in the coming years
    Read More
  • PwC surveys EV market potential
    April 19, 2012
    Collaboration between industry participants will be essential to bring alternative fuel applications to market, according to PwC's latest publication Charging Forward: Electric Vehicle Survey. While automakers continue to bring electric vehicles (EVs) to the marketplace, governments, local municipalities and utility companies are challenged with building the infrastructure required to support these vehicles long before mainstream consumption will take hold. PwC surveyed over 200 executives across multipl
    Read More
  • London needs just one road user charge, says report
    July 8, 2019
    London’s patchwork of road charging schemes should be replaced by a single, distance-based user charge, according to new research. Apart from anything else, it would be much fairer… The UK capital’s multiple road charging schemes require a radical overhaul, according to a new report by the Centre for London thinktank. The suggested solution is to replace existing levies on drivers with a single, distance-based user charge which would more fairly reflect how much, and at what time, people are using London
    Read More

Highlighted Content