The Walking & Cycling Alliance – which includes Cycling UK, Living Streets, Ramblers and Sustrans – says the rise is needed if Government is to meet its target of doubling cycling levels cycling and increasing the proportion of children walking to school.

It says that current funding for active travel infrastructure and programmes currently stands at £7 per person in England, or just over 2% of total transport spending. The Alliance calls for the annual spending on walking and cycling to increase to £17 per person this year (5% of total transport spend) and rise to £34 per person (10% of spend) by 2025.

Living Streets chief executive Joe Irvin said: “The Government needs to raise its ambition on walking. It’s realistic that the average person can walk at least once a day, so we believe a target of 365 journeys a year is achievable.

“Walking and cycling have huge benefits to our health, but also help reduce road congestion, greenhouse gases and air pollution cross the UK. The Government needs to double investment in active travel now, not tomorrow.”

The Alliance made its call for a doubling of active travel funding as the Government responded to the Transport Select Committee’s report on active travel, published in July.

Recommendations made by the Committee included that Government produces an annual report on delivery of its Cycling & Walking Investment Strategy. In response, the Government said that the Department for Transport plans to publish a first progress report as soon as possible, setting out progress in delivering actions, aims and targets set out in the strategy. It added that the Department will consider more regular publication, potentially on an annual basis.

The Committee also called for more ambitious targets for increasing levels of cycling and particularly walking and for the creation of a dedicated funding stream for local authorities to deliver active travel improvements.

A DfT spokesman said: “We have doubled investment on active travel to £2Bn over the five years up to 2020/21.

“Our flagship £210M Cycling Ambition Cities programme has now provided around 250km of new segregated cycle routes and facilities, and a further 300km of new routes for cyclists and pedestrians.

“We published our landmark Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy in 2017 and we continue to look at ambitious plans to encourage more people to travel on foot or by bike.”

(Photograph: Sustrans)