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Transport Minister's speech at the Scottish Region Annual Dinner - Thursday 27 September 2007.

Introduction
I’d like to begin by thanking you for the invitation to speak to you this evening. As a new Government we are keen to speak to stakeholders from all sectors, to tell you of our plans for the future; but also to hear first hand what you think we need to do to create a successful Scotland and to encourage you to get involved through the National Conversation on how Scotland should be governed in the future.

I have a unique role in Government, for the first time there is a portfolio which covers transport, infrastructure and climate change. I see this as an opportunity to ensure cross working both at policy making and delivery levels and both within the Scottish Government and externally. Tonight I will mainly concentrate on the transport part of my portfolio, but the links to the other areas are so strong that I will want to touch on them and their links to transport.

Strategic Direction
As you are probably aware, the overall purpose of this Government is to focus government and public services on creating a more successful country, with opportunities for all in Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth. We have published five strategic objectives to help us achieve this purpose:

Wealthier & fairer - enable business and people to increase their wealth and more people to share fairly in that wealth. Safer & stronger - help local communities to flourish, becoming stronger, safer places to live, offering improved opportunities and a better quality of life. Smarter - expand opportunities for Scots to succeed from nurture through to life-long learning, ensuring better, local and faster access to education. Healthier - help people to sustain and improve their health, especially in disadvantaged communities, ensuring better, local and faster access to health care. Greener - improve Scotland’s natural and built environment and the sustainable use and enjoyment of it.

I would like to share with you how I think transport will contribute to each of these:

Wealthier & Fairer
Making journey times faster and more reliable and improving connections to help build and sustain economic growth; providing travel opportunities for employment, business, leisure and tourism and linking towns, cities and rural communities throughout Scotland.

Safer & Stronger
Improving the quality, accessibility and affordability of public transport to provide access to essential services and economic opportunities, including support for communities in less accessible or remote parts of Scotland. Reducing accidents by improving the condition of roads infrastructure, investing in new technologies to increase safety and security, promoting road safety and driver education.

Greener
Reducing transport emissions to tackle the issues of climate change and air quality by promoting public transport and encouraging individuals to shift from the private car to more sustainable, healthy and active forms of transport. Encouraging the adoption of new low carbon technologies and promoting cleaner vehicles.

Healthier
Encouraging a shift from car to public transport and to more healthy and physically active forms of transport and improving transport access (public and private) to health and community services.

Smarter
Promoting innovation and encouraging implementation of new transport technologies, such as alternative fuels, to allow us to meet greener challenges and contribute to Scotland’s economic growth.

Sustainable Economic Growth
Achieving sustainable economic growth is key to creating a successful Scotland. Over the last generation Scotland's economy has underachieved compared to similar countries and relative to the potential of our people, given our talents and our resources. Scotland's growth has been unspectacular and certainly poor by international standards, averaging 1.8 per cent over the past 30 year period (1975-2005). This rate of growth is around one third of that recorded by Ireland which points the way with average annual growth of 5.2 per cent over the past generation. It is around a quarter lower than the UK average growth rate of 2.3 per cent, and just half of the average rate for small European economies, 3.5 per cent. Scotland can perform better and the achievement of that improved performance should be the focus of everyone in Scotland. The Scottish Government has set a target to raise Scotland's growth rate to the UK level by 2011. That means Scotland matching the UK's growth rate consistently and not just when UK growth underperforms. From 2011 it should not be Scotland looking to catch up, but Britain trying to keep up. Setting a growth target is an important first step.

Transport Priorities
My aim is to help create a successful Scotland with a well connected, safe and reliable transport system, which helps deliver sustainable economic growth; provides good quality public transport that is integrated, accessible and affordable and supports all communities including those in less accessible or remote parts of Scotland and encourages the use of more sustainable and active travel modes which contribute to a greener, healthier Scotland.

Of course, in order to achieve this level of sustainable economic growth, Scotland needs transport services and a transport infrastructure that move goods, as well as passengers [or as some would say 'self-loading’ freight], reliably, efficiently and sustainably.

In the summer I saw first hand how there are those within the Scottish freight industry who have embraced the challenges posed in achieving sustainable distribution. By using rail in place of the road to move retail goods, they have achieved both increased efficiency for their customers whilst at the same time gained benefits for the environment. I applaud and welcome such innovative thinking, but recognise that there is still a long way to go if we are to maximise the level of goods we transport by greener modes.

I did chose my words carefully there by using 'maximise' - as I fully understand the continuing, and essential, role of road freight in Scotland in ensuring our businesses can get their goods to markets, and that our supermarket shelves contain the goods we take for granted. I recently met with representatives of the haulage industry, heard about the challenges those in the industry face, and listened to their views on the priorities for investment in Scotland's transport infrastructure.

Within the Scottish Government we are continuing to work with partners within the freight industry, the business community and the wider public sector in delivering the Freight Action Plan. Its aims of:

-enhancing Scotland's competitiveness,
-supporting the development of the freight industry in Scotland,
-maintaining and improving accessibility and minimising the adverse impact of freight movements on the environment,

are entirely consistent with this Government' strategic objectives. The Plan was drawn up in full consultation with business and industry and we know can only be delivered successfully if Government continues to work closely with those within the freight and logistics sector in recognising constraints and challenges and identifying solutions.

Three core principles will direct future transport projects:
-Full utilisation of the current rail and road network - for many parts of our transport network cost-effective upgrades with moderate investment could bring maximum return.
-Delivering the right infrastructure for business success - transport policy must be designed to meet the strategic needs of Scotland’s wealth creators, with a focus on delivering a competitive and effective road, rail, sea and air infrastructure which ensures all parts of Scotland are open for business.
-A focus on the needs of Scottish commuters - our aim is to make the biggest difference for the most number of Scots, which means that we will prioritise projects designed to ease the commute, remove bottlenecks and improve the quality of life for people in all parts of our country. Improvements in public transport are key to each of these core principles. For bus and rail, improvements in quality, accessibility and affordability to provide access to essential services and economic opportunities must be addressed - including support for communities in less accessible parts of Scotland.

Offering more high-quality public transport alternatives to the car and better connections will make for wealthier communities, a fairer, greener Scotland and a stronger national economy. The challenge for the rail industry is to develop plans to deliver these outputs effectively and efficiently within existing public expenditure levels.

For roads, our priorities are firstly, maintaining and operating the existing network safely and efficiently. Secondly, managing demand to reduce congestion at key locations to minimise impact to the economy and finally, investing in new capacity where it has been demonstrated through robust appraisal that it is appropriate to do so.

Planning
Planning is at the heart of achieving sustainable economic growth for Scotland. Where new development is needed, planning should be a process to stimulate and manage that development, and should not act as a barrier to it. Our Statement to Parliament last week set out the Government’s aspirations for the planning system.

The new Planning Act introduced a range of measures aimed at providing more certainty for developers, and delivering a more efficient planning service, including up-to-date development plans and a hierarchy of developments, allowing the scrutiny accorded to development proposals to be proportionate to their significance. And in placing the National Planning Framework on a statutory basis, and defining its role, the Act provided a basis for establishing our national spatial priorities and streamlining the way in which our essential infrastructure is agreed.

Climate Change
Of course, we must not forget that climate change is one of the most serious threats facing us and future generations - Scotland must be a leader on this issue and this Government will consult on bringing a forward a Bill to achieve a reduction in Scotland’s emissions by 2050.

The Scottish Climate Change Programme and its 1st Annual Report lays out our ongoing activity in this area and we are currently undertaking further research to inform new policies. Transport can contribute in a number of ways, for example through active travel - encouraging more people to walk and cycle good for health as well as the environment.

We are developing a Carbon Balance Sheet which will be used as a monitoring tool showing the greenhouse gas emissions (measured in carbon equivalents) of the Scottish transport sector over time and explain which transport policies and projects have had the most significant influences on changes in carbon emissions levels.

Strategic Transport Projects Review
A Strategic Transport Projects Review is being undertaken for all transport modes, against clear criteria on safety, environmental impact and meeting the economic needs of Scotland. The results of the Review are due during summer 2008. The Review will consider, then plan and prioritise transport infrastructure investment from 2012 to at least 2020 across all modes.

This Government recognises the importance of continuing to invest in our transport infrastructure and are committed to doing exactly that to support sustainable growth.

Our investment programme must be founded on sound justification and robust business cases and avoid the dangers of an un-prioritised programme, with projects starting at the same time, creating a high risk of overheating the market and making it difficult for contractors to plan properly. This approach is storing up problems for us. It is quite simply old fashioned boom and bust. We need a better approach and we will plan our programme in a more sensible and sustainable way to attract world class construction firms to bid for what is by any measure an ambitious and world class programme. That means bringing forward a programme that is properly prioritised, and that matches industry’s capability to deliver efficiently, sustainably, affordably and to deliver on time.

Financing of Projects
We are currently in the throes of a spending review - there are likely to be some difficult decisions to be made on where investment should be targeted. This means that all transport projects will have to be delivered within a context of tight financial control of spending and we need to investigate new ways of financing big infrastructure projects, not just for transport but across the whole spectre.

I for one relish that challenge and the others in delivering a world-class transport system on behalf of all the people of Scotland.

Scottish Region News.

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