Government supports our direction with extra funding
We have secured just under £800,000 in additional funding from the Department of Transport for this financial year. This means we can accelerate work to deliver activity set out in our draft Transport Strategy.
This extra funding takes our overall government allocation to over £1.3million for 2021-22 and is for a combination of our own work and joint projects with other Sub-national Transport Bodies (STB) across England. Joining with our national STB colleagues means we benefit from wider expertise and can explore complex issues more thoroughly.
Commenting on the increased funding, Cllr Kevin Bentley, our Chair said,
“This is a testament to the expertise and value the partnership is bringing to the region and national government. It allows us accelerate the delivery of priorities within our draft regional Transport Strategy.”
Areas that will be progressed using this additional money include:
- Developing a rural mobility centre of excellence; expanding our role as lead sub-national transport body for rural mobility
- Improving the evidence base for new transport projects with regional level, people-focused modelling and improved data and analysis
- Accelerating electric vehicle infrastructure provision
- A transport decarbonisation toolkit
- Support for our partner local authorities’ Bus Service Improvement Plans
- Investigating alternative fuels for freight
The additional funding was granted through a bidding process with the DfT setting several topic areas for bids. It breaks down as:
- £460,000 for Transport East only projects
- £1,022,000 for joint projects with other Sub-national Transport Bodies of which the Transport East allocation is £334,000
We welcome conversations with anyone working in these areas across the region. Please use our contact form to get in touch.
We have recently closed the consultation our draft Transport Strategy, which sets the direction for improving transport networks across the region for the next 30 years. More information is available on our Consultation page.