Transport, as an enabler, can play an integral role in many of the priorities that government of all levels are trying to achieve. Whether it is connecting communities to the services that their lives revolve around, or bringing trade into economic centres, the transport network is an important place to start.

Chief Executive of Transport East, Andrew Summers, spoke to host Dan Benn about the organisations Annual Review for 2023-2024, commenting on achievements, goals, and some stumbling blocks that have been encountered in the region.

Expanding on the importance of transport in driving improvement around the country, Andrew said:

“Transport is ultimately one of a number of enablers that support economic growth, a better environment and better outcomes for society, and indeed, part of our transport strategy was to try to articulate what those priorities were for us, and to then determine how we went about our work.”

Considering the makeup of the East as a region, Andrew also touched upon the importance of keeping rural communities connected to both each other, and to the economic hubs nearby, saying:

“One in three people in the East live in a rural community, and for us that’s about 1.2 million people. So that’s a significant amount of our population.

“We’ve done a lot of analysis about their accessibility and it’s pretty concerning. Two thirds of those live in what we class as a transport desert – that is, they have no access to education, training, skills, work by any means apart from the private car – and we have explored this a bit further. This creates significant transport-related social exclusion.”

To hear more from Andrew on the successes and challenges of being responsible for transport developments in one of the most rural regions of the country, as well as what the future holds for transport in the East, listen to the latest episode of the PSE Podcast now.

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