Action for roads: A network for the 21st century

Posted on: 18 July 2013
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This command paper highlights the significant challenges faced on our roads, reiterates the need for investment and sets out the government’s detailed plans to improve management of the network.

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Road transport forecasts 2013

Posted on: 18 July 2013
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This paper presents the latest results from the Department for Transport’s ‘National transport model’, which produces future forecasts of road traffic growth, vehicle tailpipe emissions, congestion and journey times.

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Energy planning: Monitoring the implementation of London Plan energy policies 2012

Posted on: 18 July 2013
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 This report reviews the commitments secured through implementation of the London Plan energy policies in 2012. It will be of interest to developers and energy consultants, as well as others involved in the planning process e.g. case officers, policy officers, etc.

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Airports Commission: Long-term hub capacity options

Posted on: 17 July 2013
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Heathrow Airport Limited has published its response to the Airport Commission, presenting three options for a third runway.

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Roles of Pacific regional organizations in disaster risk management

Posted on: 17 July 2013
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This report documents the current contributions of Pacific regional organizations to disaster risk management (DRM) and explores the potential for them to play more substantial and active roles in the future. Although regional mechanisms are playing increasingly important roles in DRM, there has been remarkably little research on their contributions and few published studies on their comparative advantages. At a global level, this recent Brookings study sought to address this gap by summarizing the work of more than thirty regional organizations involved in DRM, drawing some comparisons and generalizations about the work of thirteen in particular. The present study also seeks to address the gap through an in-depth assessment of the Pacific islands region.

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European Conference on Mobility Management. Gavle, Sweden, 29-31 May 2013

Posted on: 17 July 2013
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This year’s conference saw many contributions on the rising sharing economy, the use of information technology and gamification to promote the shift away from the car, evidence of the financial and economic benefits of mobility management for society, and tools for cities to assess their sustainable urban mobility policies. Presentations are available online.

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Real Estate Gazette

Posted on: 16 July 2013
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The Gazette is a quarterly publication from DLA Piper, containing articles and comments on recent legislation and case law affecting every aspect of real estate around the globe, including investment, finance, tax and corporate/funds issues, as well as planning/zoning, construction and dispute resolution. This issue turns the spotlight on data centres with articles from Thailand, Belgium, Russia and the UK. In addition we offer the usual mix of articles on global real estate matters. Among other topics, we look at new opportunities for investors in Poland’s shale gas and oil industry; consider the issue of transferability of construction rights in Turkey; examine the implications of new competition law legislation in the Middle East and discuss the tenant’s right to withdraw from non-terminable commercial lease agreements in Denmark.

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Spending on transport infrastructure 1995-2011: Trends, policies, data

Posted on: 16 July 2013
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This  report and a related database have been released by the International Transport Forum at the OECD. The 2013 edition of the Forum’s annual statistics update presents aggregate trends in inland transport infrastructure investment and maintenance since 1995 and provides data on road, rail, inland waterway, sea port and airport spending for the International Transport Forum member countries for the period 1995-2011.

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Managing the land in a changing climate

Posted on: 16 July 2013
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This report, a progress report from the Adaptation Sub-Committee, reviews some of the key ecosystem services provided by the land.  Specifically, the report addresses the use of land to continue to deliver important goods and services in the face of a changing climate, supplying food and timber, providing habitat for wildlife, storing carbon in the soil, and coping with sea level rise on the coast. It explores the extent to which decisions about the land are helping the country to prepare for climate change.

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Quality of government and the returns of investment: Examining the impact of cohesion expenditure in European regions

Posted on: 16 July 2013
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This paper sets out to examine the impact of the quality of local and regional governments on the returns of investment, focusing on the returns of EU structural and cohesion funds. Despite the widespread belief that the quality of government affects the returns of public investments, whether this is effectively the case has seldom been proved.  The results of the analysis underline the importance of the quality of government both as a direct determinant of economic growth, as well as a moderator of the efficiency of structural and cohesion funds expenditure. The analysis finds that both EU investments targeting regions and quality of government make a difference for regional economic growth, but that above a significant threshold level of expenditure, the quality of government is the key factor determining the returns of public investment. In many of the regions receiving the bulk of structural funds, greater levels of cohesion expenditure would, in the best case scenario, only lead to a marginal improvement in economic growth, unless the quality of government is significantly enhanced.

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