Parts of the Manchester city-region have been booming over the last ten years, in the city centre and in some of our main towns. Our challenge is to bring similar levels of growth to poorer parts of the conurbation, to maintain and accelerate growth, and to ensure that every community in Greater Manchester can contribute to and benefit from the wealth being created.

Our workforce is growing in all those areas where a modern economy needs to grow: new technology, media, services and the financial and professional sectors. We also have a huge presence in higher education across the region and an enviable record of retaining and attracting graduates to the region.

On top of this we have a range of cultural and lifestyle offers that helps to attract and keep the people who will fuel future growth.

We do not have a world-class transport system. We do not have a transport system that can both sustain growth and encourage social inclusion. Less than ten years from now, we run the risk that our potential for growth and for job creation will be undermined by our inability to physically support this through our transport system.

Unless we invest in our transport network, growing congestion will restrict our ability to cope with commuter and commercial traffic. This, coupled with overcrowding on public transport and poorly served destinations, will eventually start to choke our economy.

It is in this light that people need to examine what is planned under our Transport Innovation Fund bid. Our bus networks will be transformed by new agreements with operators. Communities across Greater Manchester will have a new level of service with new routes and greater frequency of service. There will be new fast bus routes running across the conurbation, new orbital routes linking the districts towns and key areas of employment, feeder services to train and tram stations, and a doubling of park-and-ride at those stations. There will be more carriages on peak time trains running through refurbished stations.

Combined with the £500m-plus already committed to the next extension of Metrolink, TIF means Metrolink will almost treble in capacity, serving yet more destinations across Greater Manchester.

For the first time in many years we will once again have a genuine transport network. New interchanges, timetables and tickets will make journeys easier and more pleasant. A new smartcard ticket – like London’s Oyster Card – will provide easy integrated ticketing. It will become second nature to move across the city by train, tram and bus (as well as walking and cycling). For many if not most journeys, the car will no longer be the only choice available.

Even a cursory examination of the locations of our investment will show how closely it is related to areas of social exclusion and areas of endemic worklessness, allowing our investment in transport to play a key part in tackling long-term issues of social inclusion. This is the light in which one must examine our charging proposals.

A limited peak-time only congestion charge, operating Monday to Friday, 7 to 9.30am travelling towards central Manchester, 4 – 6.30pm travelling away, the scheme will impact on less than 20 per cent of daily vehicle journeys, and for those who can’t avoid or choose these journey times the average daily cost will be less than £3 to drive on much less congested routes. That said, the recent rises in petrol prices are further proof that no city of the future can depend solely on private car use to keep its economy growing.

Our proposals are vital for our city’s future prosperity. We must now move from false statistics and scare stories to reasoned debate. Critics must tell us what they would do beyond simply saying government should give us more money. To imagine we can say no to charging and yes to this scale of investment simply won’t wash.