The Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) was a transport funding mechanism in

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, that has been replaced by the Urban Challenge Fund in March 2010. Its creation was announced by

Her Majesty's Government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

in the July 2004 White Paper, ’The Future of Transport’. The fund had two strands for supporting different types of project: Congestion TIF where local authorities bid for funds for their own schemes; and Productivity TIF where the DfT would identify schemes of national importance. TIF represented a new approach by the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport ...

(DfT) to allocating some of its budget for England. The fund did not apply to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland but they would not lose out because the budget for the fund will come from England’s overall allocation, calculated by a mechanism known as the Barnett formula.

Congestion TIF schemes

The DfT was looking for packages that combine demand management with a coherent anti-congestion strategy. Demand management is a euphemism for increasing the cost of commuting by car to levels above those of public transport, thus reducing the demand for road space. They were most likely to fund packages that involve demand management through

road pricing Road pricing are user charge, direct charges levied for the use of roads, including Toll road, road tolls, distance or time-based fees, congestion pricing, congestion charges and charges designed to discourage the use of certain classes of ve ...

but they may "by exception, be prepared to consider bids involving
Workplace Parking Levy
.Department for Transport – Executive Summary – TIF Business Case Guidance

Bidders

Preparing a bid to the fund would be very expensive, so as a first stage the DfT asked for bids for pump priming funds to pay for the research that would be needed to prepare a full bid. In July 2005, Alistair Darling announced that of the 21 groups bidding for pump priming funding, the following eight had been successful: *

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City Council, Bath and North East Council, North Somerset Council and

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Council £1,495k *

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£385k. This bid included development of many major roads within Cambridge, over of new cycle paths, and the implementation of congestion charging if congestion does not decrease. * Durham County Council (for Durham City) £300k *

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City Council and Metro. Application amount to be confirmed. *

Manchester congestion charge The Greater Manchester Traffic congestion, congestion charge was part of a bid to the Government's Transport Innovation Fund for a Pound sterling, £3-billion package of transport funding and the introduction of a road congestion pricing, congest ...

and Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund £1,250k *

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County Council (for

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) £480k *

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£950k *

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£2600k

Size of the Fund

The TIF was to be worth about £9.5bn over seven years, of which about £1.4bn (£200m a year) would be available for Congestion TIF.

Other transport funding mechanisms

In the UK, spending on transport is too large for local authorities to raise the required revenue from local taxes. Instead, they obtain funds from central government through a number of mechanisms. For a large scheme, an authority must prepare a major scheme business case (MSBC). In this context, a large scheme is defined as one costing more than £5m. Authorities fund schemes costing less than £5m throug
The Local Transport Settlement
The size of their settlement is derived from a formula that relates the funding to a number of factors including population. However, the budget calculated from the formula is modified to account for the DfT’s assessment of the authority’s Local Transport Plan (LTP) and the authority’s record of delivering the elements of their previous plan. Over the period 2006 to 2011, Greater Manchester, a conurbation with a population of about 2.55 million, will receive a settlement of just under £50m a yearAddress 1

Size of TIF compared to other funding mechanisms

Although TIF funding was to be smaller in total than the Local Transport Settlement, it will be shared between fewer authorities, so for an individual authority it would represent a very large amount of funding. In 2007/8, the Local Transport Settlement will be £1,254m shared by all the authorities in the country. TIF was to be worth about £290m of which £200m will be available to Congestion TIF. According to the

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"The

Association of Greater Manchester Authorities Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

wants £1.2bn … virtually all of the £1.4bn currently due to be dished outBid in for £3bn 'c-charge' cash - News - Manchester Evening News
/ref>". So Greater Manchester's bid for TIF funding (£200 m a year) is roughly four times the size of its Local Transport Settlement (£50m a year).

References

{{Reflist Department for Transport Innovation in the United Kingdom Transport in England