ATE0011

Written evidence submitted by Energy Saving Trust

Energy Saving Trust is the leading, impartial sustainable energy organisation, focused on changing the way we use energy in homes, communities and road transport. We provide advice on sustainable energy to millions of citizens each year, work on behalf of governments and businesses to administer energy saving programmes, and carry out research.

We have worked in close partnership with Transport Scotland and the Department for Transport for nearly two decades, delivering programmes of the highest quality to help achieve our nation’s decarbonisation goals. Our programmes support businesses, local authorities and citizens to adopt electric vehicles and the delivery of charging infrastructure, sustainable freight, ebikes, fuel efficiency and more.

Can the Government meet its 2025 active travel ambitions

Yes. We think that it is possible for the UK Government’s 2025 ambitions for active travel in England to be achieved. In brief, these are as follows:

• increase the percentage of short journeys in towns and cities that are walked or cycled from 41% in 2018-19 to 46% in 2025.
• increase walking activity to 365 stages per person per year in 2025;
• double cycling from 0.8 billion stages in 2013 to 1.6 billion stages in 2025; and
• increase the percentage of children aged 5 to 10 who usually walk to school from 49% in 2014 to 55% in 2025.

The National Audit Office report into active travel in England made clear that in earlier phases of active travel investment the UK Government had limited knowledge or oversight of the projects that local authorities were designing and implementing which led to some underperforming projects. The report also recognises that the creation of Active Travel England has already gone some way to addressing the challenges faced in trying to achieve the UK Government’s active travel ambitions. We echo this assessment. Active Travel England should be a crucial enabling factor in achieving the 2025 ambitions.

While we think it is possible for the 2025 ambitions to be met, the UK Government’s decision to cut funding for Active Travel England and transport decarbonisation programmes more generally makes achieving these goals, and tackling the 21.8% of UK emissions that came from road transport in 2020[1], challenging to meet. The £200m cut to the active travel budget in England will mean that communities in England continue to be disadvantaged compared to their counterparts in Scotland and Wales where the respective devolved governments have been increasing active travel spending[2], [3]. In England per capita spend on active travel is only £1 per head outside of London compared to £58 per head in Scotland[4] and £22 per head in Wales[5]. These cuts, according to Sustrans, represent a “two-thirds cut to promised capital investment in safe infrastructure for walking, wheeling and cycling”[6]. Without the necessary investment to meet the Government’s high ambitions, low carbon transport provision outside of London will not materialise at the rate needed, meaning that the benefits in terms of economic growth, reduced carbon, improved public health, and more liveable towns and cities will also not be achieved.

The Value for Money of Active Travel

There is a strong value for money (VFM) case to be made for investments in active travel. According to Sustrans, active travel was worth £36.5bn to the UK economy in 2021[7] with the benefit to cost ratio of investments in walking and cycling estimated to be 5.62:1 according to a 2014 report commissioned by DfT[8]. There have been numerous reports which have made strong economic cases for investments in active travel. Urban Transport Group’s 2016 report[9] sets out five key economic benefits from investing in active travel. Possibly the most compelling are the benefits of:

• An improved urban realm: “enhanced city centre environments have been associated with as much as a 40% uplift in retail takings.”
• Promoting inclusive growth: “In England, 48% of households in the lowest income quintile do not have access to a car.”

In the wake of DfT’s funding cut announcement the Conservative Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street wrote an open letter to active travel minister Jesse Norman[10] stating how welcome the planned investments had been in the West Midlands and making the point that “No other transport schemes can be delivered as quickly and cost-effectively as active travel, with benefit-cost ratios of 4.7 to 32.8 for cycling schemes compared to 3.1 to 5.1 for road schemes.”

The high VFM figures quoted above are due to both increased spending from those using active travel in urban environments and, crucially, from avoided ill-health from inactivity and poor air quality. With the latest Office for National Statistics Labour market review[11] reporting that economic inactivity due to long-term sickness has increased to a record high, the value of improving the physical health of the population in terms of economic performance has never been clearer.

We know from the programmes we deliver in England and Scotland that active travel investments offer a host of benefits. Thinking broadly about the UK’s approach to active travel policy, we think it must be a priority to extend access to active travel beyond stereotypical cohorts so that the benefits are felt across the population, as is the case in, for example, the Netherlands.

We detail below a selection of the ebike-focused active travel programmes we have delivered, and their benefits. Ecycles of all types will be crucial active travel technologies in a low carbon society, helping to move people and produce faster and over longer distances than would otherwise be possible, and enabling households in more rural or semi-rural communities, and those with disabilities or limited mobility, to take up active travel and feel its benefits.

eCargo Bike Grant Fund

Background

This was a national scheme, funded by the Department of Transport and administered by Energy Saving Trust. It offered funding to organisations based in England to procure ecargo bikes. The scheme was first launched in 2019/20, when £166,615.19 funding was provided to 109 organisations to procure a total of 228 ecargo bikes. In 2021/22, the eCargo Bike Grant Fund was relaunched with £700,000 of total funding being made available. The funding covered up to 40% of the cost of an ecargo bike, up to a maximum of £2,500 for two-wheel models and £4,500 for three-wheel models. Applicants were able to apply for funding for up to five bikes per organisation and were also able to submit joint ‘high-street’ applications1 for shared ecargo bikes. By May 2022, £429,140 had been allocated to 103 organisations to purchase 197 ecargo bikes.

Evidence of impact

• The scheme reduced emissions considerably. Based on the tracked mileage data provided by 2019/20 grant recipients, the average mileage travelled by the ecargo bikes was 2,656 miles per bike per year. Combined with their self-reported information on the types and mileage of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles that the ecargo bikes displaced, the estimated carbon savings were 401 kgCO2e per bike per year.
• The scheme drove adoption that otherwise wouldn’t have occurred. 55% of respondents reported they would not have been able to purchase their ecargo bikes in the absence of the grant3. For other respondents, even though they claimed they would have purchased their ecargo bikes in the absence of the grant, they said the grant enabled them to purchase sooner, more than planned, or higher spec ecargo bikes. 
• The scheme was good for participating business, reducing costs, improving efficiency and brand image. 91% of respondents reported benefits from using ecargo bikes (including health benefits, quicker journeys, cheaper running cost and positive attention for their business). For the 19/20 round: Respondents were also asked if their journeys using ecargo bikes took more or less time compared to ICE vehicle usage. 59% of the respondents said they were about the same. 31% of the respondents reported the journeys were shorter using ecargo bikes.

19% said they had purchased additional ecargo bikes since eCargo Bike Grant Fund 2019/20 national scheme. 

• The scheme supported significant modal shift. For the 21/22 round: Of the 103 grant recipients, 46 (45%) indicated that their ecargo bikes would replace old petrol or diesel vehicles. For the 19/20 round 32 respondents (74%) indicated that in the absence of their ecargo bikes, they would have undertaken part or all of the journeys in ICE vehicles.
• SMEs were the main benefactor. Most of the organisations supported by the eCargo Bike Grant Fund 2021/22 national scheme were micro-size (69%).
• The lack of suitable supporting infrastructure remains a significant barrier. For 19/20, less than half of the respondents reported that infrastructure that supports the use of ecargo bikes was easily accessible, in particular, safe spaces for storing ecargo bikes (28%), road (47%) and cycling infrastructure (49%).

Local authority eCargo Bike Grant Fund scheme

Background

The eCargo Bike Grant Fund local authority scheme, funded by the Department for Transport and administered by Energy Saving Trust, offered funding to local authorities in England to procure ecargo bikes. The scheme was first launched in 2019/20, when 18 local authorities were funded to procure 273 ecargo bikes and nine trailers. In 2021/22, the scheme was relaunched and the top scoring 14 applicants who were unsuccessful in the 2019/20 funding round were invited to resubmit their bids for funding. The local authorities were able to bid for up to £200,000 of funding to purchase ecargo bikes for their areas, either within their fleets or for local businesses. When the scheme closed in 2022, a total of £1.13 million was paid out to the 14 local authorities to purchase 193 ecargo bikes, 16 trailers, 62 boxes and seven storage units. 

Evidence of impact

• Overall, the local authority version of the scheme mirrored the results of the national scheme, providing significant benefits to recipients and wider communities.
• The intervention was needed to drive uptake. 91% of the respondents reported that the grant was very important in driving their decision to adopt ecargo bikes, and 82% said their local authorities would not have been able to purchase their ecargo bikes in the absence of the grant.
• The scheme delivered significant carbon savings. Using 41 respondents’ self-reported information on the types and mileage of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles that the ecargo bikes displaced, the estimated carbon savings was 9,630 kgCO2e.
• Challenges around suitable infrastructure persist. Some key challenges reported by respondents were: The lack of secure storage or parking (23%), and cycling infrastructure (19%). Based on the feedback from ecargo bike end users, only 32% of them felt that local infrastructure had a positive impact on ecargo bike usage. Challenges mentioned by end users included the lack of safe storage and parking spaces, and inadequate cycling lanes for ecargo bikes.
• Benefits to businesses replicated in the local authority scheme. 87% of respondents said that they had observed benefits from using ecargo bikes, including improved physical health (40%), journeys being quicker by ecargo bike than motorised vehicle (33%) and reduced impact on the environment (31%)5.
• Evidence of the positive impact on modal shift was replicated for the local authority scheme. 42% of survey respondents reported that without the provision of ebikes all of their journeys would have likely been completed using ICE vehicles, whilst 39% reported some of their journeys would have been completed using ICE vehicles in the absence of the ecargo bikes.
• Likewise, improvements in business efficiency and time-saving also replicated. Respondents who indicated they would have used ICE vehicles to undertake part or all of the journeys were also asked if journeys by ecargo bikes take longer or shorter as compared to ICE vehicles. Most of the respondents reported about the same (57%) or shorter (39%).

EBike Grant Fund – Scotland

Background

Transport Scotland have funded the eBike Grant Fund for the past six years. The fund is available to assist local authorities, public sector agencies, further and higher education institutions, active travel hubs and community groups to adopt ebikes, ecargo bikes, etrikes, adapted cycles, cargo bikes, tandems and trailers on a large scale as an alternative to car journeys and to promote sustainable travel.

Evidence of impact

• Influence of the grant. For all respondents, the grant had some influence on their decision to adopt ebikes. 87% of respondents said their organisation would not have bought their ebikes in the absence of the grant.
• Community benefits: Respondents were asked if they were satisfied with their funded ebikes. 80% were very satisfied and a further 13% were satisfied with their ebikes. When asked if they observed benefits from using the ebikes, 93% of respondents said yes. Their qualitative feedback indicated various benefits from using the ebikes, including promoting cycling, especially among elderly or less able people. Other benefits cited including improved health, that ebikes supported their work and fuel cost savings.

eCargo bike research project

Background

Supported by the eBike Grant Fund, the eCargo Bike Research Project offered 13 ecargo bikes to 11 organisations in Scotland to trial over a 12-month period for free. The trial enabled Transport Scotland and Energy Saving Trust to gather data regarding the potential of ecargo bikes for addressing both business needs and the climate emergency. 

Evidence of Impact

• The scheme delivered significant carbon savings.  The ecargo bikes were used for 1,686 trips, travelling 12,120km and avoiding 1,947kgCO2e. It is worth noting that as some organisations fitted the tracker after they started using their ecargo bike, the total number of trips and distance travelled by the ecargo bikes, as well as the resultant carbon savings were greater than the figures reported here. 

June 2023