Annual report the Government's expenditure plans : 2001 / Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

  • Great Britain. Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions
Date:
2001
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Annual report the Government's expenditure plans : 2001 / Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/408 (page 5)
    FOREWORD My Department’s fourth Annual Report sets out an impressive catalogue of achievements over the last year and an ambitious programme of work for the 12 months ahead. This last year has seen more people using public transport; fewer people sleeping rough; fewer deaths at work and on the roads; better standards for many more people in local authority homes; and better air and water quality across the country. It has not been without set-backs. We have had to respond to the problems of the fuel blockades, widespread flooding and the aftermath of the Hatfield rail crash. But we have worked hard to make progress towards our objective of a better, sustainable quality of life. We are starting to see policy initiatives becoming action, for instance in local government and transport. The duty of best value came into force for local government, and an entirely new structure for running London was completed with the first election for Mayor. Our Transport Bill received Royal Assent in November. Amongst other measures, it establishes the Strategic Rail Authority, and provides local authorities with additional powers to tackle traffic congestion. Following the July 2000 spending review, we are committed to ambitious increases in public expenditure over the next three years, particularly on transport, housing and regeneration. This will increase my Department’s expenditure from £9 billion in 1997-98 to over £16 billion in 2003-04. Over the last year we have seen the launch of the major new programmes of work that this money will fund. They include the 10 Year Plan for Transport; our climate change strategy to combat global warming; and our plans to revitalise towns and cities and deliver a fair deal for rural England too. These new programmes demonstrate convincingly the value of our commitment to integration over the past four years. We need our 10 Year Plan for Transport to deliver our climate change commitments. Local government reform is an essential step towards helping communities plan how central resources can best answer neighbourhood needs. Strengthened planning policies will help bring about an urban renaissance. Decent, affordable homes are a key to reversing decline in rural villages as well as improving city estates. All these policies are closely interlinked. Sustainable development is the principle behind them all: a commitment to progress which gives the same emphasis to social, environmental and economic objectives. It is no good in the long term if we get ahead in one of these areas only at the expense of another. Sustainable development integrates policy across government, with my Department in the lead. We have worked in close partnership with colleagues in other departments, and with businesses and voluntary groups too. In January we published a summary of what we had achieved in the 12 months since the launch of our strategy A better quality of life. That report shows we can be proud of what we have done so far, but achieving sustainable development is as much a continuing process as a fixed goal. The forward programme of work outlined in this report will make sure we keep on making progress and keep creating a better quality of life both in the present and for the future. Spe JON PRESCOTT