Labour to privatise new roads

Despite a drubbing at the local elections in England, a wipeout in Wales, and a poor showing in Scotland, Keir Starmer and his government seem determined to press ahead regardless. 

While Starmer clings on for the time being he maintains that he is sticking to the task of delivering the change that people voted for, without any sense of shame or irony. He seems to have forgotten that Labour won with barely a third of the vote (and only 20% of the electorate), which he only achieved by many people lending Labour their vote to get rid of the Conservatives. They did not sign up for a war on nature, or the removal of democratic safeguards and loss of civil liberties, or even more privatisation, things absent from Labour’s manifesto.

They wanted to end the chaos and destruction of the previous Conservative governments, which penalised the poor and less able, crashed the economy and damaged the environment. Unfortunately, many of the same issues have continued under Labour, leading to its unpopularity. The problem is that Labour appears to have been captured by right wing lobbyists, the toxic influence people were trying to be rid of, and are continuing on that same destructive path.

Now Starmer is going further away from Labour values by promising to privatise new roads in the King’s Speech. We were expecting new legislation to privatise the Lower Thames Crossing ‘smart’ motorway (LTC), yet the government went much further, promising the LTC will be the first such road to be built this way and more privatised roads could follow. This is despite the litany of failure that privatisation has caused, for which the public is now paying heavily.

It will mean people having to pay tolls to drive on new roads built using this model. Only last year tolls on the Dartford Crossings jumped 40% in preparation for the giveaway of the tunnels and QEII bridge when a private operator is found for the LTC. That’s just the start: we’ve previously warned that tolls could triple to pay for the LTC.

Promises of setting up a regulator to control costs, will cut little ice with most people, given the abject failure of regulators like OFWAT. Seemingly unaware of the irony, the government cites Thames Tideway Tunnel as an example of infrastructure built using this model. Yet it has been criticised for the excessive costs that households will have to pay for it. 

The privatisation of roads also comes at a very odd time, given that Labour is busy nationalising the rail operators because of the abject failure and high cost of privatisation on the railways. At the end of this month Govia Thameslink Railway is being brought back into public ownership, with all operators promised to be fully public by 2027.

A critical mistake that Labour is making is that it is constantly bashing the environment and nature as it trashes the planning system and erodes democratic accountability. It thinks getting tough on ‘red tape’ and pursuing growth will appeal to the markets and Reform voters. Yet an analysis of Welsh and Scottish candidates’ social media output by Full Fact, found that in Scotland, Reform UK candidates talked about the environment more than any other party other than the Greens. So it is dangerous for Labour to make assumptions about voters’ likes and dislikes. 

While it looks like Andy Burnham could be the next Prime Minister, if he can be selected and then win the Makerfield by-election – no mean feat in itself given that Labour is being squeezed by both the Greens and Reform – we can’t be certain whether he would change much were he in charge. While he has done good work on franchising the buses and developing the Bee Network in Manchester and championing the case for investment in the north, he has refused to introduce a clean air zone or other restraint measures. As a result Manchester has not benefited from significant modal shift. If he continues this approach at a national level he could be doomed to repeat the failures of the past: building ever bigger roads to try and build his way out of congestion.

Unless he changes Labour’s flawed approach to housing delivery, truly prioritises sustainable and integrated transport in funding settlements, not just fine words, and calls a halt to the privatisation of new roads, any honeymoon period could be short-lived. He needs to understand that just carrying on with a (Conservative) business as usual agenda, which voters have roundly rejected, isn’t likely to be a recipe for success.