Government announces nearly £1bn cut in transport funding

If I had to pinpoint something about the Government that I actually liked it would have to be the amusing and deliberately obfuscated press releases they put out. This morning is no exception, the Secretary of State for Transport, Douglas Alexander, has announced "the country will benefit from £1.25billion to improve local transport" in 2007/08.

Now, whilst I cannot (yet) establish whether this is money that's already been announced, what is hidden away in the press release is the announcement that the amount of money the Government plans to spend in 2008/09 and 2010/11 will be cut.

The final paragraph of the release states that "[i]ntegrated transport allocations totalling £1,769 million across the country for 2008/09 to 2010/11, subject only to next year's spending review, are also included in today's announcement."

Crude maths I know, but that means the Department of Transport plans to spend £700 million less over the two years following 2007/08. You have to love obfuscation really. When they're not obviously re-announcing money, they're burying budget cuts in the detail.