Counting the costs

Know about the book -

Counting the costs is written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee and published by The Stationery Office. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 0215041917 (ISBN 10) and 9780215041913 (ISBN 13).

While this report welcomes the additional investment in road and rail infrastructure projects announced in the Autumn Statement, it expresses concern that the regions are not as well provided for as London and the south east. There are also real concerns about how those projects were chosen. Ministers need to provide much more information about how the department's funding of the Regional Growth and Growing Places Funds has been used. While the presentation of financial information is in a clearer, simpler format than previous years, the key performance indicators fail to show whether the DfT's policies are effective and, overall, the DfT's 2010-11 annual report gives a very thin account of the department's performance during the year. The Department must publish much more information about changes made to its budget within any given year. MPs noted that the DfT underspent on its budget in 2010-11 by more than the budget cuts made during the year. They recommend that the new rail schemes announced in the autumn statement be regarded as additional to those which the Government will agree to fund as part of planning for the 2014-19 rail spending period. Finally, the Committee repeats its call for the Department to publish a national transport strategy to explain what the Government aims to achieve by spending money on transport and how its policies support these aims.