The document discusses a round table event focused on transport devolution. Key points discussed include: 1) There was debate around how to speed up decision-making processes in transport, with suggestions of improving clarity around roles and responsibilities as well as funding routes. 2) Attendees discussed how introducing Sub-National Transport Bodies (STBs) could help integrate decision-making across different levels of government and private sectors. 3) The role of technology companies in leadership and influence over transport was highlighted as an important future development.

1. adecision.Whetheryouagreewiththedecisionor
not, it should not take a generation to get one. So
how do we speed up the process?’
It was suggested that there needed to be more
clarity around who is involved in decision-making
and how, with an equally clear route to funding.
The debate:
As the attendees debated the issues in the round,
one suggested that many of the problems raised –
integration,clarityoffundingandspeedofdelivery
– could be smoothed by the introduction of STBs.
‘We know we cannot have joined-up working
under the current system. Some things are in
Whitehall, some things are local, some private etc.
The STB gives an opportunity to join this up.’
Another suggested that the role of technology
companies was likely to be the most telling
development in the future.
‘The leadership coming through will be more
abouthowyoutapintoandinfluencethoseprivate
sector technology giants. It is a very different
governance arrangement when public and private
sectors work together. Talent needs to change and
the civil service needs to get it.’
However it was also argued that politicians
needed to take more ownership and had become
too risk adverse. ‘Too often they hide behind
consultations or reviews and duck what needs to
be done. There is too much following at political
level and not enough leadership.’
Another attendee agreed but argued that local
government just doesn’t have the pay structure to
attract the best and brightest and needed to work
more closely with the private sector.
One attendee mentioned schemes such as
the upcoming A14 project that have been in
the planning stage in one way or another for
years despite widespread support from key
stakeholders. And there was much agreement
that, in transport, the public sector in general
needed to behave more like a commercial
company and be prepared to push forward
and even speculate occasionally when it felt the
project was good enough.
It was also argued that professionals, including
engineers and local directors, needed to help
politicians ‘by getting used to judging things and
advising the right way forward’.
This argument was taken up by another
attendee who said: ‘It’s the power of positive
planning – facilitating things rather than seeing
your job as to stop things happening.’
This was seen as particularly evident in the civil
service where ‘there are far more people involved
in checks and balances than delivering’.
However, Scotland was held up an example of
how things can move quickly, with the devolved
nation developing a national planning framework
in a very short space of time.
Another attendee agreed with this: ‘You have to
workwiththegrainofanorganisationandyoucan
actually get things through quickly. I got a letter
from the chief secretary of the Treasury within
four days telling me to go ahead with a contract
because I had lined everything up.’
There was an agreement among some in the
group that the modelling and cost benefit analysis
behind transport schemes – particularly WebTAG
– needed to be reformed to take more account of
modern realities.
It was even agreed by some that regional
24 surveyor July 2016 www.transport-network.com
round table
T
he Government’s devolution agenda is
still in its infancy but already a picture
has emerged of great opportunities and
even greater uncertainties, and as a result
a shade of cynicism appears to have crept in.
Successive waves of city and devolution deals
have swept across England and we are still
awaiting the creation of statutory sub-national
transport bodies (STBs) from next year and the
full retention of business rates from 2020. While
many in the sector would still celebrate these
moves, behind closed doors some complain that
central government is still holding all the cards,
andalltoooftenholdingthemtooclosetoitschest.
Against this backdrop there was probably no
better time for the recent round table hosted by
Penna, in association with Surveyor.
Under Chatham House rules, senior transport
figures from both the public and private sectors
looked at the key interfaces and issues that could
make or break this new age of devolved transport.
The session began in unusual style, with the
large group of attendees divided into four groups.
Each was then asked to present the outcome
of its individual table discussion on one of four
key areas: leadership in devolution, connectivity,
funding and governance.
Leadership in devolution:
It was argued that leadership and talent at senior
levelsappearedtoplayahugepartinthedevolution
process and what was given to whom. Sir Richard
Leese was held up as the gold standard in terms of
driving a good deal for his area. A flipside to that
point was that some areas and regions might find
it harder to attract the best talent away from places
like London or Manchester.
A concern was also raised that some in the
sector had concentrated too much power and
influence around themselves. These individuals
had become ‘bed-blockers’ in local government,
it was argued, who held back progress and at the
same time would leave the local authority under-
skilled if they moved on.
It was suggested that councils also needed a
robust technical plan and should operate by the
principle of the often-quoted film line, ‘if you
build it, they will come’. Delegates argued that
there are many major projects coming through
the infrastructure pipeline, as well as massive
capacity issues in various areas of the country,
so government at all levels should have the
confidencetopushforwardwithprojectsbasedon
the evident need.
It was also suggested this should be matched
with greater efforts to bring forward young talent
and to treat schools, apprentices and further
education as something of a human resources
supply chain.
Connectivity:
This group suggested there were several aspects
to the topic, including the inter-modal nature of
end-to-end journeys and digital issues around
information, choice and the flexibility of real-time
services.
Data and its uses featured prominently in the
group’sdiscussion–particularlytheneedforopen
access to the data.
‘There is a general tendency for operators
to want to keep hold of data and feel there is a
commercial value to themselves in that data,
whenreallythevalueisinthedatabeingopenand
shared,’ the group’s presenter said.
This had become especially vital due to the
emergence of disruptive technologies, service and
business cases, it was argued. The group gave the
exampleofUberanditsimpactonthetaximarket.
It was argued that Transport for London had
taken the correct approach by choosing not to
make their own apps but to open its data to the
public and allow others to carry out the work.
The role of the public sector was important in
terms of creating and directing strategic thinking.
In general terms, it was suggested this was not
necessarily the best place to deliver or imagine
new forms of connectivity.
‘A lot of the current restraints are probably due
to not understanding the customer or having
the channels to do that,’ it was claimed. ‘It works
where the customer is in control and by that we
mean choice. The customer may end up paying
the same, but when they feel they have a choice
over how to travel, they feel empowered.’
Funding:
Thegroup’spresenterintroducedthetopicstating:
‘What are we trying to fund? The main thing is
growthandwequicklycametotheconclusionthat
growth should fund growth.’
It was argued that growth should be measured
not just in pure financial terms but also in macro-
economic aspects, including more people, more
houses, more jobs and better skills.
The table went on to warn that one issue with
developing a more sophisticated method of
analysing, establishing and boosting growth was
the fragmentation of both the funding and the
delivery system.
The presenter said: ‘Many of our major
providers, such as Highways England or Network
Rail,dealwithhistoricalproblemssuchascapacity,
rather than looking forward with a combined
strategic economic plan that should drive an
integrated transport strategy.
‘One issue is we need to get more money in.
Anotherissueisco-ordinatingthemoneywehave,
which is in lots of different government pots, in
different departments. There is not enough
joined-up thinking to ensure we get the best use
of that money.’
It was suggested that stamp duty, council tax,
infrastructure levies, business rate levies and road
charging were all areas that should be looked at to
pay for more transport and infrastructure.
It was also argued that when it came to using
the private sector to finance improvements, public
sector operators and authorities might need to be
more realistic about how many ‘bells and whistles’
they demand.
Governance:
The multi-layered nature of governance in
this country was highlighted as creating some
confusion over who does what and where.
The table asked itself how local communities
should be involved in nationally significant
schemes.
‘The main role for local authorities is not in
deciding whether a scheme should go ahead but
ensuring the local community benefits as much
as it can from the scheme,’ the table’s presenter
argued. ‘Most schemes, once they get to the point
of being nationally significant, are very rarely bad
schemes.
‘The other issue is how long it takes to come to
A round table event hosted by global people management specialists
Penna looked at the issue of transport devolution at a crucial moment
for the sector. Dominic Browne reports
Delivering a better future
www.transport-network.com surveyor July 2016 25
round table
Surveyor/Penna round table delegates
Darren Caplan, CEO, Airport Operators
Association
Bob Longworth, Director, Consultant, Bob
Longworth Consulting, Mott MacDonald
Simon Gimson, Director, PLMG
David Young, Former Director General,
SouthYorkshire PassengerTransport
Executive
Geoff Mee, Director of Infrastructure
Strategy,West Sussex CC
Mark Munday,Technical Director, First UK
Bus First Group
Julian Dunn, Programme Director, Costain
Willie Mcgillivray, Former Development
Director, Gatwick Airport
Neil Franklin, Programme Director, NSAR
Chris Scoggins, Interim AdvisorTransport
Ben Gilligan, Consultant, Devolution for
Transport for Greater Manchester
John Lamb, Interim Director and Chief
Officer Highways &Transportation,
Calderdale Council
Colin Black, Business DirectorTransport
Planning, Arcadis Consulting
GordonTelling, Freight Advisor,West
Midlands ITA and Midlands Connect
MartinTugwell, Programme Director,
England’s Economic Heartland Strategic
Alliance
transport bodies should be allowed to draw up
their own forms of analysis, with their own inputs
and desired outcomes, creating a regional cost
benefit ratio that might include social or even
cultural benefits.
Another attendee said: ‘We must not fall into
the trap of predicting for the next 20 years. We
plan 60 years ahead at the moment. That is three
generations of technological change and the pace
is going to get faster. It’s not about saying, don’t
have a framework, don’t have some structure, but
the amount we work on modelling is not serious
and needs to change. It could be wrong tomorrow,
let alone in 60 years.’
Not for the first time at such an event, there was
an air of romantic nostalgia for the great works
of the Victorians and the way schemes could be
delivered based on vision rather than accountancy.
The mood was not despondent, but attendees
did suggest that the sector needed to have more
courage of conviction and be prepared to plan
for uncertainty by embracing imagination and
vision.
Devolution was not seen as a panacea, but
rather, as with transport itself, a moving part
that had to be integrated into wider processes
and aims. The end ambition is to create a more
liberated, dynamic transport sector that above all
simply delivered more.
Summing up, one delegate said: ‘Isambard
Kingdom Brunel didn’t need WebTAG.’