The Government has increased the funding available for e-cargo bikes as it launches a new cycling and walking executive agency.

The Government’s new £5.5m active travel funding pot includes a £300,000 top-up for the Department for Transport’s national e-cargo bike fund

Dubbed Active Travel England (ATE), the new agency is being led by Olympic gold medallist and cyclist Chris Boardman and is intended to spearhead developments in infrastructure, boosting air quality and helping to improve the health and wellbeing of the nation.

It will be headquartered in York from summer 2022 and initial work is already underway, investigating councils’ plans for active travel and supporting them to create more ambitious schemes.

Alongside the new agency, the Government also announced £5.5m of new funding for local authorities, train operators and businesses to encourage various active travel schemes.

These include a £300,000 top-up for the Department for Transport’s national e-cargo bike fund, which subsidises the cost of e-cargo delivery bikes for small businesses.

First launched in 2019 and run by the Energy Saving Trust, the scheme has proved a huge success so far, with applications exceeding the funding available.

The new funding will enable businesses across the country to purchase up to 250 more e-cargo bikes to deliver goods in their local area.

The DfT has also confirmed that 14 local authorities have successfully secured part of a £1.2m fund to support the purchase of e-cargo bikes by local businesses, supporting the transition from cars and vans and helping to work to decarbonise the entire transport network. The bikes can be used for deliveries and transportation by local businesses or councils themselves.

Alongside support for e-cargo bike schemes, the Government’s new active travel funding also includes £3m to improve cycling infrastructure around train stations and £2.2m to explore active travel on prescription schemes.

Chris Boardman commented: “The positive effects of high levels of cycling and walking are clearly visible in pockets around the country where people have been given easy and safe alternatives to driving. Perhaps most important of all, though, it makes for better places to live while helping both the NHS and our mission to decarbonise.

“The time has come to build on those pockets of best practice and enable the whole nation to travel easily and safely around their neighbourhoods without feeling compelled to rely on cars. I’m honoured to be asked to lead on this and help deliver the ambitious vision laid out in the Government’s Gear Change strategy and other local transport policies.”