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- At the 2022 Labour Party conference, shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh announced that nationalisation of the railways would form part of Labour’s next general election manifesto.
- In the same 2022 conference speech, Haigh also said Labour was committed to fully delivering HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail.
- However during the 2023 Conference following the Government’s U-turn on HS2, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced an independent review into lessons learnt from the failures of the HS2 project.
- In December 2023 Labour announced that Jurgen Maier, former Chief Executive of Siemens UK will chair the review.
- In January 2024 Sir Keir Starmer confirmed that Labour would not reverse the Government’s plan to scrap phase 2 of HS2. He said that it would be “impossible” to build the HS2 as originally conceived. Confirming speculation that Labour would U-turn on the policy.
- Sir Keir has however reaffirmed Labour’s commitment to Northern Powerhouse Rail, but told Manchester Evening News that the details of this scheme were yet to be decided. He committed to working with the Mayors of Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region and West Yorkshire to ensure local support for plans.
- NEW: In April 2024, Louise Haigh published Getting Britain Moving: Labour’s Plan to Fix Britain’s Railways outlining Labour’s plans for the rail sector.
- Plans will be centred around six key objectives for rail reform: delivering rail services that are reliable, affordable, efficient, quality, accessible, and safe.
- The plans confirmed Labour’s commitment to nationalisation, with an arms-length publicly owned Great British Railways, run by experts from the sector with the Secretary of State as the “passenger in chief”.
- Labour expect that within the first term of a Government any existing private passenger rail contracts will complete the transition into GBR.
- Labour will establish a Passenger Standards Watchdog, who will take functions from existing bodies.
- They will introduce automatic delay and cancellation refunds, simplified ticketing, a best-price guarantee, digital season tickets and targeted funding for accessibility.
- Devolved leaders in Scotland, Wales and mayoral combines authorities will be given a statutory role in the rail network.
- GBR will continue to lease rolling stock when taking on operator contracts.
- Labour will introduce a statutory duty on GBR to promote the use of rail freight.
- Open access operators will be allowed to continue to compete for contracts.
- The majority of policies will be legislated for in the first Parliament through a Railways Act that will cover England, Scotland and Wales.
- Labour will repeal the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill as one of their first acts in Government.
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- In April 2023, Louise Haigh announced Labour’s plans for bus reform, stating Labour would lift the ban on municipal bus ownership and give every local transport authority the chance to franchise services.
- Labour had announced that these reforms would form part of the Take Back Control Act but in April 2024 Haigh announced that Labour will instead pass the Better Buses Bill in their first term of office.
- The Bill will apply only to England as bus services are devolved.
- The five point plan aims to create 250 million more passenger journey per year; these will be achieved by removing barriers to franchising, providing more funding flexibility, safeguarding key routes and supporting public ownership.
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- At the 2023 conference, Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh announced a new plan to take action on unfair practices pushing up car insurance prices and they would set up a new fuel watchdog to tackle rip-off prices at the pumps.
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- NEW: Speaking on a LBC radio phone-in in April 2024, shadow Trasport Secretary said Labour would look to reinstate the hard shoulder on smart motorways.
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- In June 2023, Starmer announced, as part of his energy mission, £2 billion to fund electric vehicle battery plants through a Battery Power Fund across eight factories in the north and Midlands.
- The funding, however, will be subject to commercial negotiation.
- As part of the Green Energy Plan, Labour commit to spend £1.8 billion on upgrading ports in the north, Wales, Scotland, and Belfast to be more renewable.
- Funding to be delivered through the National Wealth Fund throughout the Parliament.
- NEW: In April 2024, Starmer announced Labour’s plan for ports committing to invest public money to drive forward projects for green and industrial growth.
- NEW: They also indicate that investments through the National Wealth Fund should have a 3:1 ratio of private investment.
- At conference 2023 the party also published an automotive strategy to help with EV development:
- New gigafactories with priority planning permission.
- Support colleges to specialise in technical skills needed to build electric vehicles.
- Provide ten-year funding cycles for automotive R&D, to match that given to aerospace.
- Set binding targets and redirect funding to ensure reliable charging coverage in every part of the UK.
- Introduce clear battery stickers on new electric vehicles giving customers real life range times.
- Standardised battery health tests so customers can buy second hand electric vehicles with confidence.
- Quality standards on data on charging apps to bring all the information needed together in one place.
- Push government to work with European partners secure a delay on the Rules of Origin requirements.
- Secure critical mineral partnerships with ally countries
- Tackle uncompetitive energy prices through our mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower delivering a cheaper, zero-carbon electricity system by 2030.
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- Following Labour’s defeat in the Uxbridge by-election, The Times reported in August 2023 that the Party’s National Policy Forum removed a statement of support for clean air zones from its draft policy programme.
- In October 2023, LabourList reported that improvements to transport decarbonisation will form part of their policy platform with a rolling programme of electrification alongside the development and usage of low or zero carbon fuels. No details on how this will be introduced have yet been shared.
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- In her 2023 conference speech, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that she has commissioned Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones to examine, line by line, every ongoing major capital project.
- In January 2024, Jones announced that the review will be supported by an expert panel with bosses from the National Grid, Mace, Jacobs and Skanska.
- NEW: In May 2024, Labour vowed to speed up infrastructure delivery by bringing together the Infrastructure and Projects Authority together with the National Infrastructure Commission to create an organisation “at the heart of government” intended to accelerate infrastructure delivery.
- NEW: The new body – the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority – would set out how projects should be planned, designed and costed. No money would be released for a scheme until its guidance had been met.
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- In November 2023, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves chaired the first meeting of the new British Infrastructure Council (BIC).
- The council brings together some of Britain’s biggest companies, namely Lloyds, Santander, HSBC, Fidelity, and Phoenix.
- The council will be established on a shadow basis prior to the general election where, if victorious, it will be made into an “advisory council to the chancellor”.
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- In a December 2022 report, A New Britain: Renewing our Democracy and Rebuilding our Economy, the party recommended the UK Infrastructure Bank be given an explicit mission around addressing regional inequality.
- The Bank (formed through the UK Infrastructure Bank Act 2023) would be renamed the British Regional Investment Bank.
- The report recommends that devolved nations, mayors and local authorities be involved in the bank’s governance.
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