Press Releases
17 September 2008
Further Evidence That Businesses Will Benefit From TIF
Research co-ordinated by KPMG, the leading financial services firm, shows Greater Manchester’s Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) package is good news for jobs, supports business and provides excellent value for money for Greater Manchester.
The work set out in a supplementary report published today by GMPTE, provides further information on the impact of the Association of Greater Manchester‘s (AGMA) transport proposals – including congestion charging - on business costs and the availability of labour, as well as looking at the impact of the proposals on workers’ access to jobs and the impact on the region’s ability to grow into the future. It also examined the overall benefits transport users would capture compared to the costs they would incur as a result of the TIF proposals.
The report highlights a number of key findings:
- The impact of the TIF package on the size and breadth of labour markets throughout Greater Manchester is both significant and positive. Businesses in each of the 10 local authority areas will see their labour markets grow by up to 14% and employees throughout Greater Manchester will see their ability to access jobs improve by up to 11%.
- If the TIF package does not go ahead the impact on the effective labour market for a typical employer will drop by as much as 22%. This effectively means a reduction of 1 potential employee in every 5.
- Business transport costs both across Greater Manchester as well as business transport to /from and within the charged area will see a reduction in transport costs. The net benefit for businesses is almost £17m per annum by 2016.
- For transport users as a whole, the overall package will deliver the equivalent value of benefits of up to £3.50 for each £1 of cost incurred through the charge. This level of benefit per local pound spent is substantially higher than could be achieved through alternative approaches.
- The overall TIF package translates into any increase in Gross Value Added (GVA) potential of over £1bn per annum at today’s prices.
- The TIF package will make it significantly easier for Greater Manchester to sustain growth in the future by enabling it to grow without dramatically increasing congestion and traffic delays, making growth more economically as well as environmentally sustainable.
Lord Peter Smith, the Leader of AGMA, said: "We have always maintained that to meet our objectives the TIF package had to increase job accessibility for local people, increase the capacity of employers to access the skills they need to support growth and to ensure the benefits of less congestion on our roads are significantly higher than the charging proposals.
“This work shows that the TIF package achieves all our objectives, and it will create a platform for sustained growth throughout Greater Manchester. This is good news for business and for everyone who shares our ambition to create a world class competitive economy."
The public consultation exercise on the TIF proposals continues until the 10th October. Subject to the outcome of this consultation the final TIF proposals will be put to a referendum which will close on the 11th December.
If approved following the referendum the TIF package will deliver 7,000 additional seats on peak time trains, improvements to more than 40 stations across Greater Manchester, new Metrolink lines to Manchester Airport, East Didsbury, Ashton under Lyne and Oldham and Rochdale town centres. Funding has also been earmarked for a line running out to Trafford Park and the Trafford Centre.
There will also be an extended bus network starting earlier and finishing later and rapid bus services on key commuter routes as well as eight new state of the art transport interchanges and an electronic smart card making travel on public transport far more convenient.
Full details about the public transport improvements and the weekday only, directional, peak time congestion charge are available online at www.gmfuturetransport.co.uk
