UK Bus Manufacturing

Jen Craft Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Westminster Hall

[Kenneth Stevenson (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Falkirk (Euan Stainbank) and the hon. and learned Member for North Antrim (Jim Allister) for securing this important and timely debate. I also say “happy birthday” to my hon. Friend the Member for Falkirk—I know that he says he is 25, but I am not so sure about that. Bus manufacturing is a significant sector in both Members’ constituencies, through Alexander Dennis and Wrightbus. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Falkirk and the hon. and learned Member for North Antrim for their dedicated efforts to support a highly skilled sector that employs more than 4,000 people across the United Kingdom and a further 13,000 in the supply chain.

The United Kingdom has a proud industrial heritage. It was known for its ability to build and build well, and companies such as our bus manufacturers keep that reputation alive. Engineering has been critical to our country’s success, and small steps, such as including engineering in the name of the current Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, would show this Parliament’s collective determination to highlight the role that engineering has to play in our future. That is a pet peeve of mine and something that the Tories and failed Reform have no idea about—in the past and in the future.

The United Kingdom can have a booming, home-grown economy at its centre once again. As an engineer and former lecturer, I am passionate about the future of UK manufacturing and innovation, but I am well aware of the need to harness potential through timely investment and the right strategies. A modern industrial strategy is required, but it must not be in name only. Any strategy must have the creation of a skills-based economy at its heart. It must be cognisant of the impacts of deindustrialisation in constituencies such as mine in Airdrie and Shotts, and it must commit to utilising skills that exist here in the UK to get Britain building and to ensure that major employers such as Alexander Dennis have a role to play long into the future.

This Government are committed to securing the future of industry and supporting bus manufacturers in their move to electric, but we must collectively go further.

[Jen Craft (Thurrock) (Lab)]

Ensignbus, which operates in my constituency, is not a bus manufacturer per se, but it repurposes buses and is looking to get into the repowering of buses that have finished their natural life, usually in London, which will aid the switch to zero emissions. Will my hon. Friend join me in encouraging and supporting it in that endeavour, and in urging the Minister to look into what we can do as a Government to support enterprises such as this?

[Kenneth Stevenson]

Yes, of course I would. There is a major move towards making sure that cars in the future, such as Beetles etc, move to electric power. There is a move towards that in America, and we should make that move in the UK towards taking cars and buses that can be improved and moving them to batteries or even hydrogen—to non-fossil fuels.

In Scotland, the Scottish Government’s procurement is so deeply flawed that contracts are handed to Chinese bus manufacturers when the skills exist in our central belt. Investing in British bus manufacturing by supporting companies such as Alexander Dennis will not only get state-of-the-art buses on the road, but bolster national security, given the serious and widely held concerns surrounding where Chinese manufactured buses are controlled from and whether an action taken in China could bring electric buses here to a halt.

Too many fossil fuel-powered buses—more than 36,000—remain on our roads. Bus manufacturers here in the United Kingdom are prepared to meet the demand to replace them. Manufacturers are calling for certainty and security, and they are asking for Government buy-in. To think that a company such as Alexander Dennis was at risk of going under, and that the jobs of people in my constituency were threatened, when such potential exists to invest in and grow the sector is deeply worrying. Words must quickly turn into action in every part of the United Kingdom to get this industry back on its feet and contributing to our economy in the way we know that it can. That is why net zero emission bus funds, whether in Scotland or across the United Kingdom, must be accessible to British businesses. The potential to grow our economy through investing in British bus manufacturing is clear to see, and I hope to hear from the Minister how we will embrace that potential, deliver for UK industry, and protect and create jobs for years to come.