The statement made by Heidi Alexander, the Secretary of State for Transport, in the House of Commons on 15 June 2026.
I am pleased to inform the House that the Government published the third cycling and walking investment strategy—CWIS3—on Friday 12 June 2026.
Investing in active travel delivers benefits across every aspect of life—improving physical and mental health, boosting economic growth, cleaning up our air, and giving people of all ages real affordable transport choice to cut the cost of living.
The strategy sets out a vision that walking, wheeling and cycling are safe, easy and accessible choices for everyone. This is supported by an ambitious target that by 2035, 55% of all short stages in towns and cities will be walked or cycled.
The strategy includes three new statutory objectives:
Enable more people, particularly the least active, to benefit from physical activity through active travel;
make active travel the easy and integrated choice; and
improve safety for people walking, wheeling and cycling.
Over the five years of the strategy (2025 to 2030), we will focus on enabling millions more children to walk, wheel and cycle to school by providing safe, coherent networks that connect schools, high streets and homes. Alongside this, through the work of Active Travel England, we will establish the basis for a national active travel network by connecting the high-quality local routes already built, funded or planned.
Beyond the CWIS3 period, we are introducing an ambitious target that 60% of children aged five to 16 will usually walk or cycle to school by 2035.
The strategy projects over £4.5 billion of investment in active travel across the CWIS3 period, including £1.1 billion of funding for Active Travel England.
The strategy marks a fundamental shift in how active travel ambition is set, delivered and integrated into local transport networks. It is the first locally-designed national — delivered in line with our ambitious programme of English devolution supported by record multi-year funding.
Alongside the strategy, I am laying before Parliament a report which outlines progress in delivering the previous —second—cycling and walking investment strategy for the period 2021 to 2025.