Boost walking and cycling in towns and cities, urges UK government adviser

Chair of Office for Space says move would boost prosperity, health and personal freedom and could help solve housing crisis

A leading government adviser on cities has urged ministers to make urban areas friendlier for walking and cycling, saying this would boost prosperity, health and personal freedom, and could even help solve the housing crisis.

In a report that takes a notably different stance to Rishi Sunak’s recent “plan for drivers”, which seeks to prioritise car use at the expense of active travel and bus use, Nicholas Boys Smith, who chairs the government’s Office for Space, said cars “diminish liberty as well as enhancing it”.