The party would encourage the set up of community car clubs ‘in every village, town and city, including marginalised and held back communities’, it said. Vehicles could be rented through an app, with the clubs being owned and operated by community level cooperatives and local authorities.

Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy Rebecca Long-Bailey claimed that these publicly owned car clubs would put 30,000 shared electric cars on the streets.

“Labour’s community car clubs will put collective car transport in the hands of communities, reducing emissions, improving air quality in urban areas and boosting domestic manufacturing,” she said.

The party proposes funding the initiative by £300M from a National Transformation Fund, worth £250Bn over 10 years. It added that a National Car Club would support the establishment of local schemes with expertise, funding and the procurement of vehicles.

Commenting on the plans, shared mobility champions CoMoUK’s deputy chief executive Antonia Roberts welcomed Labour’s proposals and their implications for smaller communities.

“We believe shared vehicles should be seen as part of the public transport mix, and need to be supported,” she said. Noting lessons learned from bicycle sharing schemes, she added that partnership working between public authorities and private operators has been shown to yield the best results.

Campaign for Better Transport chief executive Darren Shirley said: “Car sharing and car clubs help give people the confidence to swap more journeys for public transport while still having access to a car for when they really need one.

“To stimulate the growth of car clubs, Government needs to remove the key barrier to growth and ensure there is a standardised approach from local authorities to encouraging their set up.”

Car club operator Zipcar UK’s spokesman Vivienne Mackinnon said: “We welcome all policies that support the growth of electric vehicle car sharing in the UK.

“We know more than anyone the key role that car sharing has to play in transforming people’s driving behaviours. We also know that car sharing removes privately owned vehicles from UK roads and actively helps tackle the UK’s growing challenges of congestion and pollution.”

(Photograph: Zipcar UK)