Fight to save Scotland’s FFG steps up a gear

Ahead of a Scottish Parliament debate today and a motion put forward by Cathy Jamieson MSP, the RFG and Transform Scotland have prepared a briefing paper: The case for retention of Freight Facilities Grants, to clearly outline the importance of FFG.

The Grants play a vital role in increasing modal shift from road to rail, and the paper illustrates how scrapping them clearly works against the Scottish government’s own environmental objectives.

Colin Howden, director of Transform Scotland, commented: "The government has strenuous targets to meet on climate change, and the decision to scrap FFG puts its commitment to these in doubt. Rail freight is three times more energy-efficient than road haulage, and there are clear carbon benefits from getting heavy freight off the roads."

One of the UK’s biggest suppliers of bottled water voiced its concerns over the move in a recent interview with the Herald Scotland, saying its plans to build a rail terminal in Perthshire had been jeopardised as a result of the proposals to abolish FFG in the country.

RFG dhairman Tony Berkeley noted that FFG has been in existence since 1974, and, since 1997 alone, 37 FFG awards totalling £68.9 million (including £10.9m from DfT) have been made to projects in Scotland.

"The vast majority of the modal switch from road to rail in the (non-coal) market in Scotland in recent decades has been achieved with the assistance of FFG, which has also achieved significant mode switch from road to sea, e.g. for timber on the west coast," said Berkeley, adding that, given the strong competition with road freight in the country, FFG had targeted particular flows and services in a very cost-effective way.

"These grants, and the parallel Revenue Grants, are there because the Westminster and Scottish governments have both accepted that key rail freight flows need some support in order to compete fairly with road freight," said Berkeley. "We welcome the Scottish government’s commitment to sustainable economic development and fighting climate change, and note that rail freight is around five times more carbon-efficient than road freight. For these reasons, this decision to cut out FFG appears to be in direct contradiction to these policies.