Listening in to the party line on road transport

28th April 2005, Page 24

28th April 2005

Page 24

Page 25

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Page 24, 28th April 2005 — Listening in to the party line on road transport

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CM is not suggesting that all operators become single-issue voters, but we have asked the major parties for their road transport policies...

LABOUR The Labour manifesto on transport starts brightly enough: "Labour believes that good transport links, for both people and goods, are vital for our economy. Our priority is to provide a safe and reliable transport network, consistent with our wider social and environmental objectives," You'd think that this, coupled with a phrase referring to the fact that "freight transport underpins the success of the economy", would be followed by more mentions of the industry. In fact most of the manifesto is devoted to Tory bashing ("putting right years of Tory under-investment" is a line that crops up again and again) and talking about the votewinning subject of public transport.

However, two policies do stand out as inter esting. Firstly. Labour promises: "We are determined to manage our transport networks more efficiently, making better use of both road and rail, increasing accessibility and tackling congestion."

ER"... This suggests that if Labour wins a third term they will look again at ways of managing the existing road network better, through increased capacity at certain points, improved junction layouts and so on. It adds: "We are taking deci sions not just for today but also for generations to come.. For example, we have opened the M6 Toll Expressway land] we are looking at the feasibility of road pricing," This is a clear sign that Labour will look to this form of private funding for road construction in the future — the manifesto says: "Where we are building new roads we will ensure that the benefits are locked in, by considering tolling..."

Spending on transport will also increase: Labour promises to raise public spending on transport over the next three years to £12.8bn by 2007-08, with a 2.25% annual rise until 2015.

Although many operators are uneasy about the Lorry Road User Charge the government is unlikely will abandon its plans so far down the line. it insists that the LRUC scheme will remain "revenue neutral" and that operators will be rebated through fuel duty. It also says this is the best way to ensure that British hauliers operate on a level playing field against their Continental competitors.

Fuel duty is treated fairly neutrally.The Chancellor has shown he's willing to listen and hasn't raised it recently (to his credit, he abolished the fuel duty escalator started by the Tories). However, with the government promising to fulfill its environmental commitments don't expect massive cuts,if any at all, until it finds a way of decoupiing the duty paid by trucks and cars, which in its eyes is the LRUC. Indeed it says fuel has fallen by 12% in real terms since 2000.

Labour also remains neutral, if not opposed, to increasing the HGV speed limit on singlecarriageway roads. it says that road safety is of paramount importance and it's not convinced that accidents are caused through the frustration of car drivers alone.

CONSERVATIVES As with the other parties, the Tory manifesto is pretty light on road transport issues. However,to their credit we did get a detailed response from shadow Transport Secretary Tim Yeo. He lays the problem of congestion firmly at Labour's door, saying it inherited a £6bn programme to build 150 much needed new roads then cut the number to 37. He says: We are determined to ease congestion on our roads, We will establish a congestion relief fund, from which local authorities will bid for money for local schemes. We will construct extra road space at key congestion hot-spots to help deal with the worst problems and we will look to building new roads with private sector help."Yeo adds that the Tories, like Labour, will use private finance to fund any new road building.

The Tories also promise to give speed cameras back to local police forces to stop them being used to make money. There is an assumption that police forces would use it for precisely this purpose but Yeo disagrees:"At rhe moment, the Safety Camera Partnerships, who administer speed cameras, use the income from them to finance their work. By removing this unnecessary tier of bureaucracy we will eliminate the need to use cameras to fund paperwork. The best placed speed cameras should not raise any money at all because drivers are slowing down and obeying the speed limits they are there to enforce."

Yeo promises consultation on the dearth of truckstops, with a requirement that new road projects feature truckstops.

On the Working Time Directive Yeo says his party has consistently opposed it. He stops short of promising to repeal the law but adds: "The Conservative Party has an action plan to tackle the main causes of regulation, including the European Union and gold-plating. We will impose regulatory budgets on government departments, ensure minimum implementation of EU directives, insert sunset review into legislation and put an end to gold-plating. We would implement over 60 deregulatory measures, including the renegotiation of our opt-out from the job-destroying Social Chapter."

Also on the theme of Europe. Yea promises to level the playing field with our Continental competitors through a simpler version of the LRU C:" We recognise the unfair competition British hauliers face from Continental operators. In government we will consult this vital industry to see if it is possible to bring forward a simpler version of Labour's complex and unproven Lorry Road User Charge to help level the playing field with European operators." There is no mention of cuts in fuel tax.

Lastly, on speed limits, Yeo says: "On taking office we will conduct a review of all speed limits and give serious consideration to increasing the current 40 m.p.h. speed limit for heavy goods vehicles on single carriageways. I support the road haulage industry's efforts to strike a sensible balance between road safety and economic efficiency.

-An independent study as proposed by the industry could be very helpful." LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

he Liberal Democrats give haulage little coverage in their manifesto apart from promising to cut truck traffic by encouraging the development of freight interchanges to facilitate growth in rail freight and developing a shipping, ports and waterway strategy.

The environment is clearly at the top of the Lib-Dem agenda. The manifesto recognises that while transport is vital to the economy it has a damaging effect on the environment. It warns that transport is one of the single biggest and fastest growing producers of greenhouse emissions, adding: "If we are to begin to tackle global warming we have to put emissions control at the heart of transport policy.

"Any strategy which fails to recognise this is doomed to failure. The Liberal Democrats believe transport must live within its environmental means which requires not only a hah in current emissions growth hut a plan for its reduction."

When it comes to congestion the Liberal Democrats argue it is impossible to build our way out of trouble with new roads.They say that even if we ignore the environmental costs the plain fact is there is nowhere near the cash required to fund such a building programme. Instead they favour "a more holistic approach" , looking at congestion and inadequate public transport as a single problem.

There's a clear commitment over road building: there won't be any unless the benefits are clear, including environmental and safety factors following a full assessment of public transport schemes. Instead the manifesto says investment should be made on "integrated schemes linking shipping, rail and road".

The Lib-Dems would reform the vehicle excise duty system to cut tax altogether on the cars that pollute least, funded by increasing it on cars that pollute more.They don't say if this will be extended to trucks with the introduction of cleaner engines at Euro-4 and Euro-5.

Rather than a Lorry Road User Charge the Lib-Dems favour a National Road User Charge with all vehicles including trucks paying a distance-based charge based on location.congestion and pollution.This, they say, would also fund transport spending.

Dr Steve Toole, the Lib-Dem adviser on the environment and transport, says: "We supported a road user charging scheme for lorries in the 2001 election to ensure that foreign hauliers were included, and continue to support this We do however state in our manifesto that we want to extend this to car traffic as well in the longterm (5-10 years) with a national road user charging scheme based on dine/place/emissions of vehicle, while scrapping fuel duly and Vehicle Excise Duty. In the short-term we have no plans for changes infueldurvforhauliers."

The Lib-Dems also back Commercial Motor's Pushing 50 campaign.

VERDICT Pulling 'lee% is hew we'd describe getting information from the political parties for this report, which goes to show the importance any of them attach to the road transport industry. We can't help thinking that if we'd been calling from Doctor magazine or Community Care, or even Farmers Weekly for that matter, the party apparatchiks would have been happy to furnish us with their policies virtually immediately. So once again road transport has to fight to get its voice heard.

And of the parties? If we were selecting a government purely on road transport policy it would have to be the Tories. Their instinct for low-taxation and reduced red tape dovetails nicely with the feelings of many in the road transport industry. The Lib-Dems seem too closely allied to the environmental lobby, while Labour just can't bring itself to give this sector a break. There are, of course, many other determining factors which will influence us when we vote next week not least the economy, heath and education and so on which are all important considerations. At the end of the day only you can decide where to put your cross.

SCOTTISH NATIONALISTS The Scottish National Party's manifesto promise for road transport revolves round the Fuel Price Regulator, which it launched with the RHA back in March. This would ensure that higher oil prices lead to an automatic freeze on fuel duty increases with a cut in duty to match any increase in VAT.

It says road transport has had a raw deal in terms of fuel costs over the past few years, and stresses that the Chancellor benefits from rising fuel prices through increased VAT on fuel sales as well as corporation tax from oil companies. Any increase in fuel duty compounds the benefits to the Treasury. It says its system would ensure the Chancellor's department didn't lose money as a result, but would -stop profiteering at the expense of motorists and hauliers".

The manifesto favours congestion charging, but only where the circumstances are right. It opposed the proposed scheme for Edinburgh which failed at a referendum because it says public transport links were not good enough. There is support for the Working Time Directive, but the SNP would allow people to opt-out.

Neither the LRUC nor truck parking feature heavily in the SNP's manifesto, and it hasn't come under much pressure to examine the case for 50mph on A-roads.

PLAID CYMRU The Welsh party wants to invest more in public transport and wants rush-hour congestion charging to be considered in Welsh towns. It is also keen to examine the SNP's idea for a fuel duty regulator, but says fuel duty has to reflect the impact fuels have on the environment. As CM went to press, Plaid Cymru was unable to comment on the other issues we raised.