In his budget speech last week, Chancellor George Osborne confirmed that the government was planning new devolution deals with Sheffield, Liverpool, the West Midlands and Leeds, to be announced in the coming months.
The move will devolve some powers over transport, economic development and health spending, and the Chancellor said the aim is to agree these deals around the time of the autumn spending review, with additional powers for directly-elected mayors.
The full budget document stated: “The government is committed to significant transport devolution in all of the country’s city regions that elect a mayor, as well as the country’s counties. This includes the rollout of Oysterstyle smart and integrated ticketing systems that will provide people with quicker and easier door-to-door journeys, greater choice, as well as simpler and more flexible fares.”
Also announced was £30 million of funding for Transport for the North (TfN), with cities and counties in the North given more control over local transport. The funding will be delivered over three years the body will have more responsibility for setting out policy and investments.
It was also announced that TfN will have an interim CEO appointed in the autumn and a Chairman appointed by the start of 2016. It was stated that Oyster-style smart and integrated ticketing across bus, tram, metro and rail services was a top priority.
It was also revealed that some biogas vehicles could be affected by this year’s budget, after ADBA calculated that the Budget’s smallprint includes an £11m hit on the anaerobic digestion sector.
The removal of the Climate Change Levy exemption for renewables will reduce revenue by around £5 per MWh. For the 2.2TWh of electricity generated by the AD industry this will cost around £11m per year, which ADBA said would impact investor and operator confidence.
The smallprint outlines how renewable electricity will no longer be exempt from the climate change levy; stating that: “This change will correct an imbalance in the tax system by preventing taxpayers’ money benefitting renewable electricity generated overseas, and by helping ensure support for low carbon generation provides better value for money for UK taxpayers.”
ADBA’s Chief Executive, Charlotte Morton, commented: “The claim that this change is to ‘correct an imbalance’ is misleading – only a third of the climate change levy goes to renewable electricity generated overseas.
“The rest of the levy is currently spent supporting the UK’s renewable electricity market at around £5 per MWh, which developers took into account when putting their business models together. Without the exemption for renewable sources, the AD industry will lose £11m in revenue each year – hurting existing operators and putting further investment at risk.
“This announcement comes as the industry is already facing uncertainty on a number of fronts given the imminent Feed-in Tariff review due and absence of confirmation that the Renewable Heat Initiative will be extended beyond March 2016.
“We are deeply disappointed that the industry was not consulted on this decision and remain concerned about the government’s real support for the green economy.”
