We take a look at what was said at the Conservative Party Conference last week (1st – 4th October) and how it aligns with the work we have done, or, plan to do in the future.
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Both Prime Minister, Liz Truss and the Secretary of State for Transport, Anne-Marie Trevelyan made clear that they are committed to dualling the A1, and other roads such as the A303 – described by the Transport Secretary as one of the main gateways to the southwest which acts as a bottleneck to growth. Building new roads appears to be a key part of the government’s growth plans, with 86 road infrastructure projects selected to be “accelerated as fast as possible” in the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng’s Growth Plan. The Prime Minister even called out Mark Drakeford, the First Minister of Wales, for cancelling road building projects and refusing to build the M4 relief road.
The 86 road infrastructure projects that have been selected will be welcomed by many CIHT members and partners currently working on these schemes - including the A66, a project that CIHT Yorkshire & Humber region hosted an online panel discussion last year. In 2020 the CIHT published Improving Local Highways: The Route to a Better Future in which we recommended that the government:
Sue Percy CBE, Chief Executive, CIHT said:
"Whilst we welcome the renewed focus on transport, including on road building, this and other forms of infrastructure construction must not be at a cost to net zero commitments. Transport is the biggest CO2 emitter by sector and therefore CIHT will look forward to seeing how the Government balances these decisions with the transport decarbonisation plan."
The key message of Prime Minister Liz Truss and her cabinet member’s this week was clear – growth. All key issues were interwoven with how the government plans to grow the economy. Prime Minister Liz Truss, Kwasi Kwarteng the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Anne-Marie Trevelyan the Secretary of State for Transport all keenly expressed their disdain for rail strikes and how they believed this was the opposite to encouraging growth.
In 2020 the CIHT published a Comprehensive Spending Review in which we outlined how the government can improve skills and capabilities within the highways and transportation sector. In this document we called for the government to improve capability across the sector and to create an environment that supports a wider and more inclusive workforce that encourages diversity of thought to provide innovative transport solutions
Anne-Marie Trevelyan also made clear in her address to the conference that Kevin Foster, Minster of State at the Department for Transport has been put in charge of modernizing the railway to make it more sustainable for the next 100 years and make it the preferred mode of transport for passengers. In 2022 a major Rail Review highlighted a recommendation from CIHT that net zero requirements must find its way into contracts that ensure carbon impacts are measured and managed.
The CIHT has recognised that transport in the United Kingdom must undergo significant changes in the coming years if net zero by 2050 is to be achieved. We believe that decarbonising transport will require a shift to cleaner and active modes of transport. Previously, when considering active travel, we have recommended that the government make a longer-term financial commitment to active travel schemes, something which was distinctly lacking in Anne-Marie Trevelyan’s address to the conference. The lack of mention could be because the shift to active travel is now business-as-usual, but in terms of public messages on the move to active travel there is still a need to amplify this.
At a fringe event hosted by the Policy Exchange, The Future of Transport: The great decarbonisation journey, Lucy Frazer, Minister of State for Transport, stated that going forward the government needed to focus on better utilising government and private sector data.
This is something that the CIHT also called for in Improving Local Highways where we recommended that the government create a better understanding of the highway infrastructure through improved data.
A need for modal-shift was spoken about by many of the panel members with Nicholas Hellen, Transport Editor at the Sunday Times, stating that 90% of all car trips to work are done alone and that two thirds of all car journeys are also made alone. Andrew Gilligan, former Special Adviser to Boris Johnson, also stated that there needs to be a focus on changing behaviours to drive less, which will help to alleviate the demand for road space that has been increasing in the last 25 years. However, when questioned by a member of the audience both of them clarified that encouraging behaviour change and a modal-shift away from driving cars wasn’t about banning cars for everyone, instead it should be seen as a way of encouraging people with multiple transport options to choose the most sustainable option.
This is something that CIHT agrees with. We believe the highways and transport sector should be looking more closely at the sustainable transport hierarchy of avoid, shift and improve. Essentially: avoiding the need to travel in the first place; shift to a less damaging mode of transport and improve technologies such as electric vehicles. We also discussed the need for behaviour change in a podcast with Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh, environmental scientist at the University of Bath who commented that that transport professionals must focus on ‘upstream’ behaviour interventions (upstream is where you're trying to shape the environment in which people act e.g. more protected cycleways) to make progress on decarbonisation.
In another fringe event hosted by the Policy Exchange, Placemaking, Pride & Productivity: How Places Can Unlock Levelling Up, Michael Gove former Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, highlighted the importance of green space and commented on the need for the built environment and natural environment to be well integrated, creating places where people can work, rest and play. He also spoke about the key elements of planning for places, known by the acronym ‘BIDEN’: beauty, infrastructure, democracy, environment and neighbourhood.
The need for recognising the importance of nature and green spaces is something that the CIHT fully supports and will discuss in an upcoming publication focusing on green and blue infrastructure in the transport sector.
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