The NHS could save more than £1 billion a year if the Government matched Dutch levels of spending on cycle provision, health experts have claimed.
In the Netherlands, authorities spend €470 million (£401 million) a year on cycle lanes and facilities, compared with about £139 million spent in the UK, often sporadically.
Senior transport officials from Manchester, London, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Scottish parliament this week went on a fact-finding trip to the Netherlands, where 27 per cent of journeys are made by bicycle compared to just 2 per cent in Britain.
Reindert Augustijn, a Dutch transport director, said: “In the Netherlands, we used to invest in cycling to reduce the number of accidents, but now we do it for economic and health reasons.”
Health experts told the Get Britain Cycling parliamentary inquiry this year that the NHS spent about £5 billion a year on obesity-related conditions, adding that health services could make £4 of savings for every £1 invested in cycling.
The potential saving increases pressure on David Cameron to back radical measures to promote cycling across Britain, while there are calls for George Osborne to protect London’s cycling budget in this month’s Spending Review.
The savings could be far greater if Britain matched the £24 a head spent on cycling in the Netherlands, which far outstrips the £2.22 a head spent in the UK. The Get Britain Cycling report, handed to the Government in April, recommends that UK cycle budgets be increased to £10 a head.
Dutch analysts have also studied the cost benefits of mass cycling in reducing traffic jams, pollution and road maintenance costs and boosting health. They found that the economy made a 35p profit for every mile travelled by bike instead of by car.
After taking radical steps in the 1970s to decrease congestion and increase cycle safety, cities such as Amsterdam and The Hague are now largely free from traffic jams on streets where primary school children can cycle to class in confidence.
Lord Berkeley, a Labour peer in the All Party Cycling Group, was also on the trip, which was organised by the Dutch Embassy, and criticised the Government’s failure to take advantage of these benefits.
“In the Netherlands, cycling gets a big input from the health department, whereas we don’t,” he said. “I believe building decent cycle infrastructure on the roads is the key to all this. The Government is adamant that it should all be decided on at a local level, but there should be guidelines on how to design roads, housing and businesses for the maximum use of cycling. The guidelines now are too soft.”
Lord Berkeley, 73, joined MPs on a bike ride from the Dutch Embassy to the Houses of Parliament yesterday. He said local councils should be “obliged” to include cycle lanes and racks in the planning of all new developments.
He added: “There is still a need to reallocate road space in cities – it turns them into much more pleasant places.”
Mr Cameron was due to make a major announcement on cycle policy last month, but it was postponed following the Woolwich attack. Campaigners are asking him to back proposals to ensure cycle provision is included in all development plans.
The Department of Health yesterday encouraged local councils to use new powers and budgets passed to them by recent health reforms to introduce local initiatives to promote cycling.
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