Labour starts its transport journey…But who is deciding the path?

IN JUST A WEEK OR SO since the General Election, the new Labour Government has been very active in asserting the arrival of a new era in British politics.

Though not the highest of profile areas, transport has had its fair share of attention, particularly in the choice of the full ministerial team of five, led by Louise Haigh, taking forward her former role as Shadow Transport Secretary, but with two particularly interesting ministers in support — Lord Peter Hendy, spearheading Labour’s rail agenda, and Lilian Greenwood given the interesting title of Future of Roads Minister — alongside Simon Lightwood leading on Local Transport, and Mike Kane responsible for Aviation and Maritime.

Hendy comes with a huge set of experience in the industry at TfL, Network Rail, and beyond, and Greenwood will have learned a lot during her period as Chair of Transport Select Committee between 2017 and 2019.

However, it is already becoming clear that lead responsibilities on some major transport-related issues will be under the wing of other wider policy-setting cabinet members, particularly Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Deputy Prime Minister and Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary, Angela Rayner, and Energy and Net Zero Secretary Ed Milliband.

It is meanwhile interesting to reflect on where the new prime minister, Kier Starmer, places transport in his own map of the economic and social issues he wants Labour to address. His record to date on speaking about transport matters shows a much lower level of personal interest and intervention than either of his recent predecessors, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. Johnson in particular had a number of enthusiasms in the transport field, expressed during his time as both Prime Minister and Mayor of London; and Sunak spent the last couple of years taking strong positions on the balance between HS2 and local transport expenditure, and the rights and needs of the motorists.

In the previous Labour Governments from 1997 to 2010, though Prime Minister Tony Blair was not known for his transport opinions, he had this subject area well covered by his high-profile and heavyweight deputy, John Prescott, a transport enthusiast, who spearheaded the formation of a mega department covering the Environment, Transport and the Regions. Whilst this was welcomed by many professionals as at last integrating planning, development and the built environment with transport, it actually proved an unwieldy and somewhat incompatible mix of subject matter and policy priorities, eventually to be dismembered.

This time round, it looks as though a more ad-hoc arrangement for bringing together decisions across a similar territory is shaping up — in which new transport secretary, Louise Haigh may be the junior partner to Reeves, Rayner and Milliband. Already Reeves has been the one to launch the Government’s drive to “sort out” planning and infrastructure policy, with Rayner set to lead on the major push to build more homes in a hurry, an area in which of course appropriate and sustainable transport provision is a key consideration. As yet, Haigh has not even been able, within one of her priority areas of boosting public transport use, to announce an extension of the £2 maximum bus fare.

Announcements on the matter of infrastructure may turn out to be the litmus test of where the Labour Government is heading on the issue of transport priorities and integrated thinking. Chancellor Reeves has made early pointed references to getting decisions made and spades in the ground on infrastructure projects, as part of the drive for economic growth.

In other areas of local transport detail, Labour’s policies on matters like roads, parking, speed limits, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, authorising and regulating new mobility modes, and creating new mass transit systems - as well as on airports and aviation - are yet to be revealed. A conversation between the new Labour Government and the powerful set of local metropolitan mayors, almost all now Labour, has begun, but led by Starmer as Prime Minister himself. As LTT closed for press, a response to the metropolitan authorities’ wish list of hopes for policy and legislation on transport sent to the Prime Minister by the Urban Transport Group, which represents these mayoral and city-regional authorities, was being awaited in the form of the substance of the legislative programme being set out in the King’s Speech to the new Parliament.

Announcements on the matter of infrastructure may turn out to be the litmus test of where the Labour Government is heading on the issue of transport priorities and integrated thinking. Reeves has made early pointed references to getting decisions made and spades in the ground on infrastructure projects, as part of the drive for economic growth, seemingly embracing a range of types of projects from energy facilities like wind farms and the water sector, to road and rail. We will thus watch with great interest for decisions on major road schemes like the Lower Thames Crossing, A66 upgrade, and Stonehenge Tunnel, - as much for the basis of which they are made- and how the next projects are to be considered and prioritised in the RIS National Highways plans, and those of Network Rail/Great British Railways.

In this issue, Professor Phil Goodwin strongly urges a pause and fundamental review of both existing and projected roads schemes, making a strong case that the basis of which many were initiated has changed and that new Government’s objectives and priorities need to be reflected in the schemes chosen to go forward. This raises another interesting dimension, about which comment has previously been made in this column a number of times, i.e. the tradeoff between the quest for economic growth, a re-ordering of social equity, and protecting the environment.

There are also difficult choices at both a local level and nationally in terms of broader issues like climate change and the need to decarbonise.

It has been made very clear by Starmer that firing up economic growth is nis number one priority, which many will argue needs substantial infrastructure renewal and expansion, in the transport sector as much as any. Alongside this, the construction industry will expect a strong pipeline of work to maintain activity and jobs, no-doubt arguing that cancellation of a tranche of road scheme is just what the doctor wouldn’t have ordered.

The next few months will reveal the practical realities of Labour’s priorities and programme. Until then, it remains unclear just how much of a new broom on transport Kier Starmer’s Government will actually be.

Peter Stonham is the Editorial Director of TAPAS Network

This article was first published in LTT magazine, LTT896, 17 July 2024.