Transport Innovation Fund (TIF)
Encyclopedia
The Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) was a transport funding mechanism in England
, that has been replaced by the Urban Challenge Fund in March 2010. Its creation was announced by Her Majesty's Government in the July 2004 White Paper, ’The Future of Transport’. The fund had two strands for supporting different types of project: Congestion TIF where local authorities bid for funds for their own schemes; and Productivity TIF where the DfT would identify schemes of national importance.
TIF represented a new approach by the Department for Transport
(DfT) to allocating some of its budget for England. The fund did not apply to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland but they would not lose out because the budget for the fund will come from England’s overall allocation, calculated by a mechanism known as the Barnett formula
.
but they may “by exception, be prepared to consider bids involving a Workplace Parking Levy”.
“The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities wants £1.2bn … virtually all of the £1.4bn currently due to be dished out“. So Greater Manchester's bid for TIF funding (£200 m a year) is roughly four times the size of its Local Transport Settlement (£50m a year).
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, that has been replaced by the Urban Challenge Fund in March 2010. Its creation was announced by Her Majesty's Government in the July 2004 White Paper, ’The Future of Transport’. The fund had two strands for supporting different types of project: Congestion TIF where local authorities bid for funds for their own schemes; and Productivity TIF where the DfT would identify schemes of national importance.
TIF represented a new approach by the Department for Transport
Department for Transport
In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved...
(DfT) to allocating some of its budget for England. The fund did not apply to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland but they would not lose out because the budget for the fund will come from England’s overall allocation, calculated by a mechanism known as the Barnett formula
Barnett formula
The Barnett formula is a mechanism used by The Treasury in the United Kingdom to adjust the amounts of public expenditure allocated to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales automatically to reflect changes in spending levels allocated to public services in England, England and Wales or Great...
.
Congestion TIF schemes
The DfT was looking for packages that combine demand management with a coherent anti-congestion strategy. Demand management is a euphemism for increasing the cost of commuting by car to levels above those of puplic transport, thus reducing the demand for road space. They were most likely to fund packages that involve demand management through road pricingRoad pricing
Road pricing is an economic concept regarding the various direct charges applied for the use of roads. The road charges includes fuel taxes, licence fees, parking taxes, tolls, and congestion charges, including those which may vary by time of day, by the specific road, or by the specific vehicle...
but they may “by exception, be prepared to consider bids involving a Workplace Parking Levy”.
Bidders
Preparing a bid to the fund would be very expensive, so as a first stage the DfT asked for bids for pump priming funds to pay for the research that would be needed to prepare a full bid. In July 2005, Alistair Darling announced that of the 21 groups bidding for pump priming funding, the following eight had been successful:- BristolBristolBristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
City Council, Bath and North East Council, North Somerset Council and South GloucestershireSouth GloucestershireSouth Gloucestershire is a unitary district in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, in South West England.-History:The district was created in 1996, when the county of Avon was abolished, by the merger of former area of the districts of Kingswood and Northavon...
Council £1,495k - CambridgeshireCambridgeshireCambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
£385k. This bid included development of many major roads within Cambridge, over 85 kilometres (53 mi) of new cycle paths, and the implementation of congestion charging if congestion does not decrease. - DurhamDurhamDurham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
County Council (for Durham City) £300k - LeedsLeedsLeeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
City Council and Metro. Application amount to be confirmed. - Manchester congestion charge and Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund £1,250k
- ShropshireShropshireShropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
County Council (for ShrewsburyShrewsburyShrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...
) £480k - Tyne and WearTyne and WearTyne and Wear is a metropolitan county in north east England around the mouths of the Rivers Tyne and Wear. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972...
£950k - West Midlands conurbationWest Midlands conurbationThe West Midlands conurbation is the name given to the large conurbation that includes the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton and the large towns of Dudley, Walsall, West Bromwich, Solihull, Stourbridge, Halesowen in the English West Midlands....
£2600k
Size of the Fund
The TIF was to be worth about £9.5bn over seven years, of which about £1.4bn (£200m a year) would be available for Congestion TIF.| 08/09 | 09/10 | 10/11 | 11/12 | 12/13 | 13/14 | 14/15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £290m | £600m | £930m | £1300m | £1680m | £2100m | £2550m |
Other transport funding mechanisms
In the UK, spending on transport is too large for local authorities to raise the required revenue from local taxes. Instead, they obtain funds from central government through a number of mechanisms. For a large scheme, an authority must prepare a major scheme business case (MSBC). In this context, a large scheme is defined as one costing more than £5m. Authorities fund schemes costing less than £5m through The Local Transport Settlement. The size of their settlement is derived from a formula that relates the funding to a number of factors including population. However, the budget calculated from the formula is modified to account for the DfT’s assessment of the authority’s Local Transport Plan (LTP) and the authority’s record of delivering the elements of their previous plan. Over the period 2006 to 2011, Greater Manchester, a conurbation with a population of about 2.55 million, will receive a settlement of just under £50m a yearSize of TIF compared to other funding mechanisms
Although TIF funding was to be smaller in total than the Local Transport Settlement, it will be shared between fewer authorities, so for an individual authority it would represent a very large amount of funding. In 2007/8, the Local Transport Settlement will be £1,254m shared by all the authorities in the country. TIF was to be worth about £290m of which £200m will be available to Congestion TIF. According to the Manchester Evening NewsManchester Evening News
The Manchester Evening News is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom. It is published every day except Sunday and is owned by Trinity Mirror plc following its sale by Guardian Media Group in early 2010. It has an average daily circulation of 90,973 copies...
“The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities wants £1.2bn … virtually all of the £1.4bn currently due to be dished out“. So Greater Manchester's bid for TIF funding (£200 m a year) is roughly four times the size of its Local Transport Settlement (£50m a year).