8 January 2008
We received a petition asking:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to put the same effort into publicising and promoting the benefits of flexible working as a solution to congestion and pollution problems, as is being spent on road pricing pilots."
Details of Petition:
"All the research and case studies (including government initiatives) over the last two decades indicate that flexible working provides significant business benefits to organisations as well as a better quality of life for individuals. It could also prove to be a more effective and popular way of reducing congestion and pollution than road pricing, if the government really wants to change behaviours rather than just raise more tax revenue. Yet flexible working continues to be pigeon-holed as being about ‘carers’ and friendly HR policies, rather than being recognised as providing tangible bottom line benefits for businesses and for UK plc. There is no ‘one size fits all’ that could be implemented by government targets or legislation, but there is plenty that government could do to educate and inform, to support and encourage, and to publicise and promote flexible working so that individuals, organisations and UK plc can reap the benefits; benefits that have been amply demonstrated in research and case studies over many years now. The evidence is there, all we need to do is act on it!."
Read the Government’s response
Underlying the Government’s transport policy is balancing the need to travel with quality of life. The Government promote a range of measures that are designed to either reduce the need to travel or encourage people to travel in a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly way. This can include increasing walking, cycling and use of public transport, car sharing, joining car clubs or making more use of flexible working. These types of measures can be promoted individually but frequently work best when packaged or grouped together into a ‘travel plan’. The Government recognise the value of flexible working and other work-related measures such as teleworking and encourage their inclusion in workplace travel plans. Indeed we are actively promoting them as part of our work with companies through our National Business Travel Network, which was set up in February to increase the take-up of travel planning.
Sustainable travel measures on their own, however, will not deliver the reduction in congestion that the Government are seeking. The Government therefore also need to explore the potential of road pricing. As Sir Rod Eddington said in his study on improving the transport’s contribution to economic growth and productivity, road pricing has unrivalled potential to tackle congestion. The Government cannot ignore it. It is misleading to compare effort and resources spent on road pricing against sustainable travel. There are resources being devoted to sustainable travel across the country in all local authorities whereas just a few local authorities are looking at road pricing. The key issue is to ensure the right level of focus on sustainable travel, which is why we consider it to be integral to any plans for introducing road pricing schemes. The Government are therefore requiring authorities bidding for finance under the Transport Innovation Fund to develop local road pricing schemes to include substantial sustainable travel programmes. This may include proposals to encourage employers to introduce flexible working.