Whitehall bureaucracy is stifling transport improvements across the country, according to a new study.
Vital redevelopment schemes, such as the planned Birmingham Gateway, are being put on hold because councils cannot raise the funding for essential transport infrastructure.
These are the claims of the All Party Urban Development Group in a report published on Monday (26).
Entitled Loosening the leash, it blames Britain’s infrastructure crisis on Whitehall’s ‘micro-management, excessive bureaucracy, too many funding streams and financial rules’ which are constraining local government’s ability to fund their own infrastructure. The group is calling on the forthcoming Lyons inquiry and comprehensive spending review to devolve funding and financial powers to town halls.
Group chairman Clive Betts MP said: ‘Britain’s cities are being held back by our centralised funding system. The Government needs to empower city leaders to take more of their own decisions.
‘Our message is clear. Greater devolution is essential for the future success of our cities.’
The report also warns the proposed planning gain supplement, to be introduced in 2009, could result in further centralisation, bureaucracy and infrastructure delay if taken and redistributed by the Treasury.
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