How Government can leverage transport to increase UK productivity, improve regional prosperity and ensure a sustainable future.
Transport is the vital link connecting individuals, communities and businesses, playing a pivotal role in enabling innovation and accelerating economic growth across the nations and regions. Efficiently designed transport networks become engines of opportunity, driving productivity and contributing to enhanced quality of life for all UK citizens.
Money
People pay for transport through fares, motoring costs and taxes. The government provides funding for trains and buses, where wider benefits like reducing congestion, improved air quality and providing a lifeline for many older and disabled people clearly justify this support. Limiting spending on transport would result in reduced productivity, lower tax income, and ever-increasing funding for health and welfare. A long-term and stable commitment to future transport funding is required for people and businesses to confidently plan their futures.
Planning
Transport is linked directly to land use by the generation of journeys from peoples' homes and workplaces and the movement of goods along logistics supply chains to businesses and consumers. Linking the planning of new developments with resilient and sustainable transport improvements is the best way to ensure that people can continue to travel and receive the things they need without increasing network congestion or costs for consumers.
Inclusion
Addressing the mobility needs of our growing disabled and older population is both a social and an economic imperative. Priorities include better enforcement of existing legislation, identifying gaps in the chain of accessible journeys and more effective training of transport professionals.
Local decision making
The vast majority of journeys are local. Local people know their communities and should be given the responsibility for decisions about local transport issues, aligned with the revenue raised locally. Local priorities must also be balanced with the wider regional and national overview needed for trunk routes between cities and regions and for strategic infrastructure, such as ports and airports, to ensure UK plc gets maximum overall benefit from transport expenditure.
Net Zero
Achieving net zero is essential, and we must find the best ways to achieve it. Rail, buses and coaches can become virtually zero carbon with electrification and walking and cycling should be encouraged as much as possible.
Electric cars and vans are well established in the market, short/medium-range electric HGVs are emerging, and the freight industry is focused on alternative ways of powering long-distance HGVs. Switching freight to more carbon efficient modes like rail is a major opportunity and should be given greater impetus.
Aviation has a pathway to net zero involving a range of measures, allowing people to continue to fly. Shipping is developing a range of solutions, such as battery ferries and tugs, with methanol and hydrogen seen as the most promising options for global shipping. It is essential that these changes, many industry-led, are supported by the government and matched by the reliable provision of renewable energy supply, suitable electricity charging points and encouragement to use off-peak electricity.
Skills
There is significant scope and need for new skills and training as we electrify road, shipping and rail transport and develop new supply chain skills in the workforce.
Decisions for a new Government's first 18 months
Require local decision-makers to ensure that roads enable people to live, work and socialise, along with appropriate provision for walking, cycling, public transport, parking and deliveries. The needs of older and disabled people are integral to the planning and delivery of such measures.
Set out the case for a longer-term change to roads taxation policy that replaces fuel tax and deals with congestion.
Revise National Policy Statements for National Networks (road and rail), Energy, Aviation and Maritime to align contemporary needs with future aspirations.
Provide policy support and funding for operators to work with authorities to fulfil the potential of bus and coach services so that people can access work, education, services and other activities.
Implement GB Railways, bringing together revenues and costs and providing a strategic overview. Introduce rail ticket reform to better meet customers' needs.
Incentivise private sector-funded rail freight with grants, loans and incubator support for new services. Encourage the construction of strategic rail freight interchanges via the planning system and prioritise the electrification of short gaps on key rail freight routes.
…Local people know their communities and should be given the responsibility for decisions about local transport issues, aligned with the revenue raised locally. Local priorities must also be balanced with the wider regional and national overview needed for trunk routes between cities and regions and for strategic infrastructure…
Contact
The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport UK (CILT) provides insight into pivotal decisions and policies. Our recommendations emanate from the extensive collective knowledge and expertise of industry experts from CILT's members and focus on delivering prosperity for the United Kingdom. We invite you to engage with us and use this expertise to unlock sustainable growth, reshape our transport infrastructure for heightened efficiency and explore the transformative potential of transport and logistics.
If you have any comments on what you have read, please contact:
Daniel Parker-Klein Director of Policy and Communications, CILT(UK)
The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport
Earlstrees Court, Earlstrees Road Corby, Northants NN17 4AX United Kingdom