Transport secretary announces 30-point transport plan to support motorists and boost EV charging

Transport Secretary Mark Harper has announced a new 30-point plan to support people’s freedom to use their cars and curb over-zealous enforcement measures.

He said drivers would benefit from smoother, easier journeys thanks to the government’s new plan for drivers, including £70 million to keep traffic flowing and measures to speed up the rollout of electric vehicle charging. 

The plan includes measures that could help councils increase spending on fixing potholes and road repairs by more than £100 million over 10 years; fining roadworks which overrun; new technology to simplify parking payment and updating 20mph zone guidance for England to prevent inappropriate blanket use.

The government has also today committed to exploring measures to speed up the installation of chargepoints for electric vehicles and extending grants to schools to install chargepoints.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: ”We’re backing drivers and our new long-term plan will improve journeys for millions across the country, whether they’re commuting to work or college, parking up for a day trip, or charging their electric car.”

To help ease congestion, £70 million will be provided to councils this financial year in three different schemes to invest in improving traffic lights and signals, including AI tech to optimise traffic flow in city centres.

The plan aims to make journeys smoother and quicker with the digitisation of traffic regulation orders, which will pave the way for autonomous vehicles and make life easier for today’s motorists by ensuring satnavs have the most up-to-date information on the location of parking spaces, road closures and speed limits. 

The measures are targeted at growing the economy by making driving easier for the 50 million car licence holders in the UK. It also aims to help people make the switch to electric vehicles.

The measures come on top of extending the temporary fuel duty cut for another year in March 2023 to save drivers a total of around £5 billion over the past 2 years.

The plans to support the transition to zero-emission include:

• reviewing grid connections process for EV chargepoints, with the aim to accelerate it
• consulting on measures to speed up the approvals process for installation of chargepoints
• providing dedicated, targeted support for schools to install chargepoints, using existing grants
• widening eligibility of EV chargepoint grants to include cross-pavement solutions to make EV ownership a more practical option for those without off-street parking
• providing guidance on the use of safe cross-pavement solutions
• consulting on the expansion of permitted development rights, making private chargepoint installation cheaper and easier
• working with industry to myth-bust concerns about EVs.

The full plan for drivers aims to make journeys smoother includes:

• strengthening guidance to make sure bus lanes operate only when buses are running
• guiding local authorities on allowing motorcycles to use bus lanes and holding a consultation about whether motorcycle access should be standard
• permitting red flashing lights for breakdown vehicles, helping to protect recovery drivers by making them more visible at the roadside
• supporting councils to introduce more lane rental schemes, which reduce roadworks by incentivising utilities to avoid the busiest roads at the busiest times
• consulting on requiring local authorities with lane rental schemes to use at least 50% of any surplus on pothole repairs or resurfacing
• consulting on extending fines for overrunning street works at weekends and increasing fixed penalty motices
• rolling out the Live Labs 2 programme to explore new, low-carbon and high-tech ways of managing local highway networks, supporting the transition to net zero carbon local roads and infrastructure
• developing a New Road Condition Data Standard to provide local authorities with access to new technologies enabling them more easily to identify and deal with road defects like potholes
• £30 million fund to upgrade traffic signal systems, replacing unreliable and obsolete equipment to improve reliability
• £20 million ‘Green Light Fund’ to tune up traffic signals to better reflect current traffic conditions and get traffic flowing
• £20 million to deploy advanced technology for traffic signals, making use of machine learning and AI to optimise traffic flow and balance traffic across city centres.