At long last the detailed allocation of the Scottish Government’s Active and Sustainable Travel budget (formerly called Active Travel) for 25/26 financial year has been revealed.
It shows total Scottish Government active travel investment now down to just 4.2% of total transport spending – back to below the level of 22/23, and even lower than the 4.6% we had predicted.
A letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Fiona Hyslop MSP, to the Parliament’s Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee provides the following table, showing how the £164.6m in the Active and Sustainable budget line has been allocated. From this we can get a good idea how much of what previously was the Active Travel budget is now going to other purposes.
The table shows £20m going to the Bus Infrastructure Fund (double the £10m originally intended) and the letter also estimates that “approximately £2.6 million of the £23.45 million allocated to People and Place for FY25/26 are deemed sustainable travel projects” (i.e. as opposed to ‘active travel’). Giving the benefit of the doubt, let us assume that the Trunk Road and Road Safety elements are entirely for active travel aspects, and disregarding some other small non-active elements, the active travel element of this budget line is therefore £142m (i.e. £164.6 less £20m less £2.6m).
Therefore, revising our original calculations from the 25/26 budget, we now have…
| 25/26 Budget elements | £m | Budget table |
| Total transport | 3906.9 | table 8.01 |
| Active Travel | ||
| Sustainable & Active Travel | 164.6 (from table above) | table 8.04 (budgeted 164.8) |
| Less non-active element | – 22.6 | see above |
| Separate CWSR fund from Local Government table | 23.9 | table 8.08 |
| Total active | 165.9 | |
| Active as % of total transport | 4.2% |
There are some further uncertainties we are still investigating, which could reveal that the cut is greater, but what is clear is that active travel investment is now no more than 4.2% – and possibly less – of the total transport budget.
Active Travel cuts
Cuts in active travel investment are particularly deplorable given the growing evidence of major shift to cycling where high quality infrastructure has been provided, showing the huge potential of bike travel to contribute to government ambitions on climate, public health and cost of living.
Bus Infrastructure
We stress that Spokes strongly supports bus infrastructure funding and other measures to encourage modal shift away from car use. What we do not support is the government’s 25/26 decision to lump it in with active travel, which looks very like an attempt to disguise the active travel funding cuts – down to 4.2% from a budgeted 5.6% in 24/25 (though cut later that year, so never fully spent) and way down from the previous commitment to reach 10%.
Whilst there is heavy government spending on free bus travel (much appreciated by users!) bus infrastructure investment – vital for an effective bus system – is the complete opposite story.
In 2019, the Scottish Government committed to investing over £500m in bus priority measures, though over an unspecified number of years (a reasonable guess would have been 5 years, 10 at most). This was called the Bus Partnership Fund. However, the Cabinet Secretary stated in a 19.12.23 letter to the Committee that just £26.9m had been allocated, and even that was largely to support project development work rather than actual infrastructure. No further cash was allocated and the fund was closed in 2024.
Now it has been replaced by the new Bus Infrastructure Fund which, instead of having its own budget line, has been lumped in with Active Travel. And whilst shown as £10m in the 25/26 budget, it has since been raised to £20m at the further expense of Active Travel funding.
The Edinburgh Bus Users group is rightly urging parties in the Holyrood election to reinstate the Bus Partnership Fund, and at its original level of funding.
What you can do
- Contact your MSPs urging the government to…
- Reinstate the commitment to at least 10% of the transport budget for active travel – as in the 2026 Joint Active Travel manifesto which has already been signed by over 50 Scottish organisations (including Spokes)
- Reinstate the Bus Partnership Fund, and at its original level
- Reinstate funding transparency by keeping Active Travel and Bus separate – when there are cuts, let them be open rather than by stealth
- Send us any useful replies
- Repost our bluesky post of this article.