Clarke defends cash for transport

Businesses and experts fear transport schemes will be sacrificed in the post-election rush to cut spending because it is easier to postpone or cancel them than to wield the axe elsewhere.

Transport officials in the region expect projects to be delayed. The Tories will offer no firm guarantees on spending, but Mr Clarke's intervention will offer hope that they could adopt a different approach.

"When controlling public sector spending and borrowing we will seek to ensure that we don't jeopardise key infrastructure projects," Mr Clarke told the Yorkshire Post.

"Historically, the easiest thing to cut has always been capital programmes. People get less annoyed if you cancel the future than if you cancel the past.

"But we are all too well aware it is dangerous to cancel real investment, including investment in infrastructure, at times like this."

Mr Clarke's comments come as the three main parties trade blows over cuts to public spending in order to reduce the deficit which is expected to hit 178bn this year.

Officials in the region admit it is "very likely" their allocation of cash for transport – which is already insufficient to fund all the schemes programmed for the next few years – will be cut, and have already begun discussing the implications.

Economic analysts at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) have singled out Transport and Communities and Local Government as "capital intensive departments" which should be "particularly concerned" by the looming spending squeeze, and Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers said last autumn she could offer no guarantees on Tory transport spending.

In previous recessions transport schemes have proved an easy target.

Any cut in funding would raise major question marks over schemes such as the 173m A63 improvements at Castle Street, Hull, which are due to be carried out between 2015 and 2019; the 10.75m East Leeds Parkway station in 2011-13; and the 260m Leeds trolleybus scheme, planned for 2011 to 2019.

But businesses want transport to become a key election issue amid frustration at the lack of investment in this region in recent years compared with other parts of the country.

Mr Clarke sounded a note of caution, however, about Tory thoughts on future transport spending, warning: "It shall have to be private sector financed not just public sector financed in future."

Nick Pontone, policy director at Yorkshire and Humber Chambers of Commerce, said: "Investment in our road and rail networks is a clear priority for businesses in our region and must not be a casualty of the recession. Cutting transport budgets has been the knee-jerk response when the axe falls in public spending in the past. It's a trap we must not fall into this time around.

"Ken Clarke's comments are encouraging, but we want to see these sentiments firmed up by all of the parties to give businesses the confidence their investment in future growth will be matched by the Government's."