Getting the measure of transport poverty: Understanding and responding to the UK’s hidden crisis

SUMMARY

• Transport is the single largest household expense (excluding mortgage repayments) for rural families, and the second largest for urban ones. Transport costs therefore contribute significantly to poverty, pushing over 5 million people, or 8% of the population, into poverty.
• Cars are the most expensive mode of transport, both per mile and overall. Meanwhile, the median British household spends £5,944 on transport every year, of which £5,740 goes to driving, £87 to buses and £121 to rail.
• Poorer regions of the country, which tend to be less well served by public transport, are the worst affected by transport poverty. 12.5% of people in the North East likely suffer from transport poverty, compared to only 3.5% of people in London.
• Freezing fuel duty does little to alleviate transport poverty. Fuel duty freezes since 2011 have only saved the median UK household £13 per month, decreasing poverty by just 0.3 percentage points, despite a cost of £100 billion to the Exchequer.
• This money would be better spent reversing cuts to public transport in poorer areas, giving those in transport poverty a cheaper option. Every 10% increase in the speed of public transport relative to driving saves the average household over £434 per year
• To address the problem of transport poverty, the government should:
  • Adopt and refine our metric to track the geographic and demographic distribution of transport poverty.
  • Recognise that freezes to fuel duty have failed to decrease transport poverty and allow the rate of fuel duty to rise or replace it with road pricing mechanisms.
  • Use transport poverty metrics to target extensions of public transport networks outside London where they would be most effective at reducing transport poverty.
  • Reduce the upfront costs of electric vehicles to increase access to electric vehicles among groups most impacted by transport poverty.