We’re as yet no clearer on when an election is to land in 2024, but the work goes on to try to tease out the shape of walking and cycling policy from politicians who may be in the know; today we seek to understand the Conservative cycling and walking policy ideas.
Following our initial interview with Labour MP Fabian Hamilton, we’re happy to bring you the Conservative MP and counterpart co-chair on the All Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking, Selaine Saxby. This series hopes to give you the information you need to make an informed decision when you come to vote, but comes with the caveat that, as yet, nothing said is a manifesto commitment, rather just guidance to party thinking.
Who is Selaine Saxby?
First of all, Selaine Saxby is the British Conservative Party’s MP for North Devon and has been since 2019. It is, coincidentally, on the day I interview Selaine the scene of a crime that encapsulates the frustrations active travel campaigners are having in making streets safe. A van driver was filmed driving into grassroots activists who were trying to enforce a low traffic scheme near a primary school in the absence of police action in the area. Needless to say, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are on the agenda, in particular as this has become a hot potato issue that has divided politicians on both sides of Parliament’s benches. The Prime Minister has ordered a review into LTN deployment despite their popularity over time.
Aside from other political leadership roles, Selaine is also the longer-serving co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking and an advocate in Devon for projects like the renovation of the 180-mile Tarka Trail.
Selaine admits that nowadays she cycles less than she used to, the heyday being her stint at Cambridge University, which needless to say is the done thing for students in one of the UK’s highest by bike modal share communities. Separately, she says ‘as a girl I’d cycle down to the coast to go and swim in the sea’.
For background, Cycling Electric reached out to Guy Opperman, the Under-Secretary of State for Roads and Local Transport and in charge of the Conservative cycling and walking brief, but did not receive a reply. Selaine volunteered to take on our interview on account of her APPGCW role.
Conservative Cycling and walking policy: Spending and saving
It’s here that we get stuck in to the interview. Selaine’s experience sounds idyllic, but does it reflect the reality on the ground in 2024? Are the roads, particularly those in rural Devon, safe and inviting enough to make journeys like the aforementioned the norm?
‘It’s hard, I think, to legislate for the country as a whole as what seems obvious in one place may not be in another,’ starts Selaine. ‘Infrastructure is part of the answer, you need the right infrastructure for the right road and sometimes solutions don’t translate well. Not every council has the same view on cycling and when money filters down little happens. There’s a bit too much of a focus on central Government, we need to push councils to get projects over the line.’
Arguably that’s true, Active Travel England in dishing out the now near two thirds shrunken active travel funding pot, is doing so in a way that prioritises the receptive councils versus those with a poor delivery record. On the one hand that seems sensible, but on the other it creates a postcode lottery for residents as to whether they will ever see local improvement. Of course there’s an election coming, so they can vote accordingly.
Praise is given for Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, who appointed cycling industry leader Adam Tranter to become the region’s first ever Walking and Cycling Commissioner. Selaine says that this example is one that shows ‘when passion exists things can happen’, adding, ‘When you have got a very busy agenda you need a champion on the councils,’ indicating councils may wish to follow this model if they want to see change.
But does the fact that the national active travel budget equated to only £50 million in each of the past two years also have a significant bearing on the country’s progress?
For context, the budget of 2023 announced an extra £200 million for highways maintenance (potholes, essentially) for the financial year 2023 to 2024 alone. Pothole filling, then, gets a further 300% funding annually than the funding given to care for both cyclists and those who walk. Additionally, redirected HS2 (railway) funding gave an £8 billion boost to the roads fund last year in a plan that emphasised ‘backing drivers’.
So, is the active travel budget appropriate in the face of a £7 billion annual traffic congestion cost to the economy, plus transport’s largest single countrywide contribution to Co2 emissions at a quarter of all emissions?
There is a concession that ‘I think that it was cut too far’, says Selaine on the active travel budget, before adding ‘though times are difficult we need to balance spending overall.
‘In Devon we have the longest road network in the country with 8,000 unfilled potholes, sometimes the roads are impassable. We get a lot of deep freezes and rain that causes the issue, though heavy vehicles don’t help too. You need an e-bike if you are going to ride here and mostly it’s the Sustrans trails that are used for commuting. I pushed for some section 106 money to divert to building cycle lanes towards a school, rather than use active travel cash.’
Backing the driver, but what about everyone else?
There is an acknowledgement that motoring, by its sheer volume, is causing problems nationally that need addressing. With the number of cars doubling from 20 to 40 million since 1990 and with 10 million more set for the roads by the end of 2030. Government policy is not ambiguous, however, fuel duty has been frozen consistently for the entirety of this Government and road building remains a priority in transport spending, inducing yet more demand. The PM wrote just recently about ‘slamming the brakes on anti-car measures across England’.
Earlier we touched on Low Traffic Neighbourhoods as giving some respite for local residents. So, given the party tone has been dismissive as a whole despite the evidence available to show they are in many cases having the desired effects on road dangers, congestion, emergency services response times and pollution, what’s Selaine’s view from Devon where the first has now gone in and already caused a controversy?
‘The theory is lovely for parts of London where fantastic transport and infrastructure exists. The challenge is that however much we want to leave cars at home, in many parts of country there is no alternative. It sounds lovely, but I don’t think many have been well planned or thought through. What happens to people who have to use the cars? I love the theory, but I think there’s a need to respect all views. Exeter has had an LTN go in, but it’s created traffic jams somewhere else.’
Not too dissimilar is the idea of the 15-minute city planning concept, another controversy that has been recently touted within the Conservative Party, incorrectly, as being part of a plan to keep people from leaving their local areas. This conspiracy theory that has become popular and been mentioned by MPs like Jacob Rees Mogg and indeed the Transport Secretary Mark Harper.
Seeming to wince a little at the subject, Selaine’s understanding is different and she explains that ’15 minute cities got a bad reputation. My understanding is that this is a design concept for new cities to enable you to have your work and home life within 15 minutes of each other. There would be no imposition on stopping you doing anything outside of that. The challenge we have in urban design policy is finding a national solution that reflects all territories. We need to better understand that you can’t just make people change their behaviour, so how do you bring people along as you make positive changes?’
She adds, ‘The pandemic was interesting because the roads were so safe, cycling became a precious commodity, but not everyone had the same enthusiasm when the cars returned. Coming from somewhere where there is only one viable bus route and one train, the only way most of my constituents are getting anywhere is by car. The railways have not provided the best service in last 18 months. The £2 bus fair has encouraged some people to change habits, but getting people out of cars is difficult; particular now cars are greener, or at least the perception of driving is getting greener. While in her active travel role Trudy Harrison came at things from a health perspective. She spent so long talking about net zero, tapping into the health benefits, reducing obesity’s significant (£100 billion annual) strain on the NHS waiting lists. There was hope that would be a more gentle nudge for people.’
Finally on the subject of the transport mix, pavement parking comes up. Aware that this consultation is long overdue, Selaine says here ‘Pavement parking is being discussed, but it’s long overdue as review. I’m assured there’s movement. Like many things consultations often take longer than you like. I do see this as particularly polarising and especially hard to legislate for country as a whole. A solution may seems obvious in one place, but not another. I have had more people in my patch on mobility scooters troubled by the issue than anything else.’
What Conservative cycling policy could have a direct impact?
Little about the upcoming manifesto pledges can yet be said in great confidence, but what Selaine says should convince voters is the appointment of Guy Opperman to the Under-Secretary of State for Roads and Local Transport role. Within that sits the active travel brief.
‘With Guy you have a real champion in Government in regular contact with Danny and Chris at Active Travel England. Guy has a lot of energy and is really passionate. He gets things done; he was the longest serving pensions minister. My view from backbenches is that we can shout but we need more from the cycling industry; there needs to be more structure in place.’
This is a curious point and a perfect time for me to interject with the Bicycle Association’s own manifesto document, which was gladly received.
Selaine continues, ‘I don’t feel that there is the same single person to speak to in the cycling industry. I have just led a debate on cutting VAT in the hospitality and tourism industry and that industry speaks with one unified and data-led voice. I get a lot of invites, gratefully received, from cycling organisations nowadays, but I don’t think I’ve yet seen a well-structured argument from the industry as a whole.’
In essence, this feels as though industry advocacy and lobbying efforts are not getting through, despite an improvement on data gathering in recent years. This attempt to pool resources and go through a central body has, admittedly, stuttered at times. A collaborative bike trade effort to get behind a crowdfunded marketing campaign to promote cycling as a cheap transport form, pitched under the Bike is Best banner, has seen its funding steadily fall away in the face of the post-Covid era bust and subsequent budget cutting.
What is landing? Cycle to work policy…
But wait, some pitches have landed, or have at least been registered with central Government for attention.
Lately there has been a concerted effort by a trade body representing bicycle retailers across the country to see a reform to the Cycle to Work scheme. It’s not the first time reform has been called for and, incrementally, happened. Yet fundamentally the Cycle to Work scheme is part of a growing conversation around inequality; in this case it is as good as inaccessible to those on low pay and delivers the best returns for those on higher wages. It is also unavailable to the self-employed.
So, what’s happening?
Selaine says ‘The Cycle to Work reform idea is interesting. I went to treasury about this. I don’t know if the conversation has continued, but it has been discussed. When you make legislation like this sometimes you create unintended issues. When we raised the National Living Wage essentially that meant that even more people can’t access the scheme if they’re low paid. I hope somebody will look pragmatically at this, but if it changes prior to the election we will have been lucky.’
As for Bikeability training for children, Selaine has engaged with the Bikeability Trust previously a handful of times, so what’s her take on kids having a fundamental right to get to school safely by bike? And once again, is the funding adequate to see habits stick while children are impressionable and open minded on how they should travel to the school gates?
‘The children certainly want the training, sometimes it’s the parents that can be the issue as they often have concerns about safety on the roads. Like anything, in an ideal world we could fund everything. If you had better cycle routes, once the Bikeability training was over you’d be off. Part of the challenge is that routes are not safe to practise on. Again, the theory is lovely but the reality is even active travel commissioners themselves often won’t let their kids cycle to school.’
Cycling policy: Other help to buy
Naturally, electric bikes come up in conversation and I raise the idea that segments of the bike industry may wish to see a subsidy to support uptake of this active travel form’s continued uptake.
As luck would have it, the last time I interviewed Selaine this very topic also came up, but that was during the height of the Covid-19 lockdowns when sales were booming. Fairly, at that time, Selaine said a subsidy wouldn’t help businesses as demand was already sky high. Now that the reverse is true, has her opinion shifted?
‘I won’t be putting words in the Chancellor’s mouth,’ she says. ‘If there is a tax cut I’m not sure that it’ll be a VAT cut to cycling goods either. Once again, the industry would need to put forward a well structured argument on why such a thing would be required.’
Here’s my list of the economic perks, if anyone from the Conservative Party is reading. If, as was the case with the cycle repair vouchers scheme during Covid’s lockdowns, the Government would prefer to again take inspiration from the French, here’s how their e-bike subsidy is going.
As a side note, only five years ago France and the UK (which have similar population sizes) had similar e-bike sales figures. Today the gap since incentives came to fruition are a 150,000 e-bike sales figure in the UK to a more than 750,000 tally in France. In fairness, France has too made a substantial, Europe-leading investment in many of its cities’ infrastructure with amazing results for health, congestion and pollution.
As for getting more people to try an electric bike in the first place, Selaine is lukewarm on shared bikes, indicating that knowing they are there when you need them is great, but that ‘I’d like to see them better parked, I think the wind blows them over.
‘The sharing industry is aware of the situation, we met with them to discuss it. There is an eScooter scheme in Barnstaple where they are well behaved and have to be parked in white boxes. I’ll admit, I was nervous at first about them on the streets, but immediately they became popular. If they are in town and linked into the transport network of a town it works really well and connects to residential areas well too.’
Research has tended to show that the more people ride electric bikes, they less they will tend to use their cars. The same finding has come up in studies on utility-ready cargo bikes too. That makes share scheme’s particularly useful as a carrot and stick method to get the aforementioned behaviour change to come naturally.
So, all in all, has this Conservative Government made progress on cycling policy and on the ground uptake? I ask Selaine.
She says, ‘It is the case that cycling is viewed as a genuine transport form now, you can’t fail to notice that.’
Certainly, as we walk out on to the Westminster cycle superhighway, you’d have to conclude that recognition has come in large part down to the expansion of cycling infrastructure right on the Government’s doorstep, as driven against often rough opposition by the current Mayor of London.