A year of jigsaw making. But can anyone see the full picture yet?

ONE YEAR ON from Labour’s election victory, its transport policy continues to take shape — not as a single coordinated vision however, but as a series of individual jigsaw pieces that have gradually emerged from across the government. Most of them, notably, not from within the Department for Transport, but from Number ten, the Treasury, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Business and Trade, amongst other origins.

Whether the jigsaw picture that finally appears (if it ever clearly does) will be an attractive image remains to be seen. But it does look as though some of the pieces will have needed to be uncomfortably forced together, rather than slipping into place easily, having been assembled on the hoof during a confusing and sometimes chaotic first twelve months of the new government.

Little remains of the original joined up vision held by the short-lived former Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh. Even her flagship rail plans have seen some significant change. Remaining rather uncomfortably on the agenda is the so called Integrated National Transport Strategy, she initiated - but how much significance that will now have in either connecting up all the other policy fragments or setting in place genuine new policy measures remains very unclear. It could simply turn out to be a re-statement of what we already know, with maybe a few aspirational suggestions of ideas that might help to join up the disparate elements already firmly in place.

Indicative of the whole process of fragmented transport policy assembly are the latest trio of government pronouncements to influence transport - the 10-Year Infrastructure Plan, which we reviewed in detail in the last issue, now followed by the devolution and local government reorganisation legislation and the Industrial strategy, which we examine in this issue. Meanwhile a full list of all the road and rail projects the Government wants to see built has been published, clearly reflecting its wider missions, which we also look at in detail. Earlier elements of transport policy to come from other quarters are the decisions on airport expansion and aviation, and the driving forces for the adoption of new digital and automation technologies like driverless vehicles and drones in the cause of ‘transformative’ economic growth

Both the Infrastructure Plans and the devolution and planning policy legislation, with the major shake-up in local government and the re-distribution of strategic transport responsibilities to Mayoral-led Combined Authorities that will significantly shape transport going forward, have been hatched with much wider agendas in mind than just optimising transport policy and delivery. The quest for economic growth and new housing and employment developments are major drivers of both policies, along with a vision of how the national economic and social framework should be shaped in line with the Government’s much referenced Plan for Change.

All the key transport policy decisions have thus now effectively been made well ahead of any INTS thinking from within the DfT. Policies on rail ownership, organisation and funding are mostly clear — but with the confusing re-thinking of open access that seems to be still going on — and likewise with the bus regulatory and public support regime, and the intentions for the highway system through the 5-year National Highways spending programme and the latest local scheme funding decisions. The script for aviation and airports policy has also been firmly laid down. Even for specific elements of local transport, the key decisions have already been made about urban rail investment, and now the way in which local transport authorities will deal with new mobility modes like shared bikes and e-scooters.

If there was to be a useful role for the Integrated National Transport Strategy statement, it might actually be in examining integration not within transport, but beyond transport’s obvious boundaries to embrace cross-government thinking on matters in which transport either bears a cost burden or can help achieve other objectives.

Within this emerging matrix, some important areas for potential attention do remain, however. One is the overall decarbonisation and climate change dimension for transport, still needing to be clearly set out. Others are difficult and challenging cross-sectoral matters, where the Government’s wider financial planning and economic agenda impinges on transport, or where it could be helpfully adjusted to improve overall cross-sectoral outcomes.

Some ‘left field’ examples in this regard have emerged as hot potatoes in the last few weeks. One is the relationship between policy for health and the NHS and the role of transport-related considerations, e.g. healthy lifestyle benefits from active travel and better coordination of patient transport and the use of existing public services, not to mention thorny issues like the pricing regime for hospital parking. Another is the relation between policy on education and child support and required special transport provision. This issue has been firmly crystalised in the new information published by the Local Government Association on the rapidly-rising cost of school transport generally, and in particular that for young people with special educational needs, as we reflect in this issue.

If there was to be a useful role for the integrated national transport strategy statement, it might actually be in examining integration not within transport, but beyond transport’s obvious boundaries to embrace cross-government thinking on matters in which transport either bears a cost burden or can help achieve other objectives. This might be by ensuring that connectivity and accessibility considerations are properly taken on board across all areas of government activity as wider policy decisions are made. This should urgently extend to housing and community development, of course, and especially in the shaping of the proposed batch of new towns and additional local housing developments.

One other area where a lack of joined-up thinking is apparent is in the approach to industrial development and specifically freight movements associated with it. Here it seems transport is often merely seen as a necessary service to be provided to meet the needs of investment and business development. It takes a transport mindset, for example, to spot the narrowness and incomplete thinking in the Prime Minister’s new effusive announcement and welcome for what he obviously regards as a wholly desirable new multi-billion business investment decision by the world’s largest shopping outlet Amazon.

“Thousands of new jobs are set to be created across the UK, as Amazon announces a landmark £40 billion investment over the next three years” the Prime Minster’s statement last week said. “This investment – announced the same week as the Government’s transformational Industrial Strategy - includes building four new fulfilment centres and new delivery stations nationwide, as well as upgrades and expansions to its existing network of over 100 operations buildings across the country. The investment will create thousands of new permanent, full-time jobs in the UK, with the vast majority outside of London and the South East.”

After meeting Amazon’s CEO, the Prime Minster said it was “a massive vote of confidence in the UK as the best place to do business”. It meant thousands of new jobs—real opportunities for people in every corner of the country to build careers, learn new skills, and support their families. “Whether it’s cutting-edge AI or same-day delivery, this deal shows that our Plan for Change is working—bringing in investment, driving growth, and putting more money in people’s pockets.”

Was this really a great unqualified step on the pathway to a wonderful future, and properly considered in its wider context - including the transport dimension? Putting aside any scepticism that most of the jobs to be created by this activity may be either relatively low value, or very soon to be replaced by robots and AI rather than humans, the implications of such large hubs of distribution activity will be significant for transport, and in particular the highway system, and very likely planned to generated by driverless vehicles, or drones.

The likely scenarios for automated transport and on line shopping are in themselves unclear, and yet the Government is seemingly desperate to support the industries behind them. As professor David Metz explores in his column in this issue, there are many dimensions and considerations to the implications of emergent new technologies that are likely to impact on the transport system in the next few years. Is the government sufficiently thinking about that matter?

The need to openly and carefully explore the future scenarios for transport and travel demand, and new behaviour emerging from other societal, technological, commercial and economic developments, should surely be high up on the Department for Transport’s radar. Considering the most overall efficient solutions and approaches to follow remains a huge gap in national policy thinking whilst individual immediate decisions grab the attention.

Embracing industrial development projects that are hatched by huge multi-national businesses as a good thing per se seems a little naive and incomplete for a Government supposedly there to consider the national interests and wider implications. This seems to be a growing contextual issue impacting upon transport policies, but not yet sufficiently recognised as such.

Providing transport infrastructure — and the capacity of the vehicles that use it — is a matter fundamentally concerned with the optimal deployment of scarce resources, public and private, to best overall effect. Currently that is not the equation most obviously at the front of most policy-makers and planners minds, as they develop schemes and shape policies for the transport system, with other more immediate and diverse policy considerations to the fore.

Peter Stonham is the Editorial Director of TAPAS Network

This article was first published in LTT magazine, LTT919, 17 July 2025.