The Labour Party was elected as the new Government in the least surprising General Election result imaginable. Here, Martin Lamb looks at what was in their policy on transport, what that might mean for the sector, and what they might like to include from other party’s policies.
Labour took a middle-of-the-road approach to transport, noting that cars remain the most popular form of transport and proposing to maintain and renew the road network, whilst acknowledging this is to serve cyclists and other road users as well as drivers.
As promised by several parties, Labour plans to accelerate the rollout of electric charge points. It will also restore the phase-out date of 2030 for new cars with internal combustion engines which was deferred to 2035 by the Conservatives. One policy not mentioned in other manifestos is to support buyers of second-hand electric cars by standardising information supplied on the condition of batteries.
For rail, Labour plans to bring railways into public ownership as existing contracts expire or are broken through a failure to deliver. Great British Railways will go ahead under Labour to deliver a unified and improved system, working with publicly owned operators in Wales and Scotland. Sir Kier Starmer visiting the First Ministers of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales on Sunday and Monday following being appointed Prime Minister on Friday, suggests that there will be a more constructive working relationship than previously.
On buses, Labour proposes to give new powers to local leaders to franchise bus services and lift the ban on municipal ownership. Labour will also give Mayors the power to create an integrated transport system, including active travel networks. The Prime Minister meeting with the mayors of several cities including London, Birmingham and Manchester shortly after being elected is a positive sign in this regard.
What else? Well, Louise Haigh has been appointed Transport Secretary, having held the Shadow Post since 2021. With ambitious rail reforms, it is important that there is continuity in the post, something sorely missing in the past 14 years. There have been 7 holders of the post, one of whom was Chris Grayling whose numerous ministerial appointments, despite a wealth of evidence pointing towards his incompetence, will baffle future historians. Haigh was highly critical of the decision to scrap the Birmingham to Manchester section of HS2, and whilst the Labour policy is not to reverse that decision, there have been mutterings of building equivalent links – time will tell.
More broadly, Labour pledged a 10-year infrastructure plan, which will be positive in giving confidence to the private sector to invest in people and technology. Of course, there is no guarantee that Labour will be re-elected in 5 years’ time, but the plan is positive. The Chancellor has also launched a National Wealth Fund to unlock private investment including transport areas including ports, gigafactories for EV battery production and green hydrogen production.
With such a large majority, Labour can justifiably claim that they have the mandate to deliver their commitments on transport, but should they be minded to consider ideas put forward in rival parties’ manifestos, here are the ones they might want to look at.
- Automated Vehicles – the Tories proposed putting automated vehicles on British roads in the next Parliament. They didn’t specify the level of autonomy or in what situations, however. Ongoing investment in CAVs makes sense to keep the UK at the forefront and to create and retain jobs in high-value manufacturing and technology development offered by the sector. Given the recent work undertaken by Maple Consulting and ITEN on connected and autonomous plant, investment in this area would also be useful to realise the efficiency savings it could offer for infrastructure delivery.
- Public transport – the Liberal Democrats had wide-ranging proposals on public transport reform with proposals to extend half-fares on buses to 18-year-olds, introduce a young person’s bus card, reform rail fares and offer integrated tickets. Some of the ideas aren’t a million miles away from what is in the Labour manifesto, but an exchange of ideas as a minimum would be useful.
- Rail Electrification – the Liberal Democrats also proposed a ten-year plan for rail electrification. Ongoing programmes have been undertaken in other countries and deliver efficiencies in retaining skills and investing in plant, in stark contrast to the UK’s stop-start record on electrification schemes. Completing electrification to Swansea and some of the other schemes cancelled by Chris Grayling would be a start.
- Aviation – both the Lib Dems and the Green Party had proposals to ban domestic flights, where an equivalent journey could be undertaken by rail in 2.5 or 3 hours respectively. As the UK does not have the track record of France or Spain on delivery high-speed rail links, it’s possibly only the Manchester to London route that would be affected. The Lib Dems proposed to introduce a super tax on private jet flights and remove exemptions for private, first and business class flights. If you can afford to fly first class or by private jet, you can probably afford a bit of extra tax. This author argues that any revenue on this should be ring-fenced for use on other transport decarbonisation activities, rather than going into the general government coffers.
- EV Charging – the Lib Dems proposed that all EV charging points be accessible with a bank card. Having a unified charging payment or bank cards should be a low-cost and relatively straightforward measure. They also proposed cutting VAT on public EV charging to 5% to bring it into line with home charging. This could encourage EV take up, but somehow, revenue from VAT and fuel duty on petrol and diesel will need to be replaced.
- Reduction in Car Use – the Scottish Nationalist Party proposed a reduction in car use, measured as ‘car kilometres’ by 20% by 2030, supported by investment in public transport. Labour would likely consider that making such a commitment would be political suicide, but reducing use is the quickest way to decarbonise. For the same reason, political parties of all colours have avoided road user charging, yet, with appropriate exemptions for key workers, it would be effective and less unpopular than many parties think, especially if a majority of drivers saved money.
- Integrating transport and housing planning – Plaid Cymru proposed that new housing developments around Wales demonstrate that they are future-proofed for growth in public transport, both generating demand and responding to demand. This seems very sensible and could be taken up by the UK Government and/or the devolved administrations. Maple Consulting’s blog on this topic is available here.
- Funding Welsh Rail Fairly – Plaid Cymru also seeks to rectify the current and historical underspend on rail compared to other areas of the UK and use it to properly connect north and south Wales and restore some Beeching cuts. Whilst there is significant anger around rail funding in Wales, in particular the lack of HS2 consequential funding, the economic reality currently is that there is limited funding available.
Will Labour consider any of these ideas? The reality is that they probably won’t, at least not in the short term, as they have pressing problems in many areas other than transport. Yet, good ideas aren’t restricted to those holding power, and political parties aren’t averse to taking other parties’ policies and presenting them as their own, so who knows?
