Road Safety and Active Travel to School

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd April 2025 Westminster Hall

[Olly Glover]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right. This is not one size fits all, and we need to recognise the different characters and characteristics of our areas. However, in the Netherlands there would always be this thing called a cycle path next to rural roads, so there is that segregation and people have confidence. That is the key difference. Even in places in the UK with lots of land, that is not something we generally see. It is important that, as elected representatives of our communities, we lead by example where we can and walk and cycle where possible.

In conclusion, we can empower young people to walk, wheel or cycle to school by providing them with the confidence to do that through schemes such as Bikeability and by putting in place measures to keep them safe, such as those around pavement parking and around infrastructure and street design improvements. I thank the Minister for already having kindly agreed to see Bikeability training in action in my constituency, and I look forward to hearing more about the Government’s plans for this topic, including what they plan to do to make it normal, rather than an eccentric exception, to walk or cycle to school.

[Wera Hobhouse (in the Chair)]

I intend to call the Front-Bench spokespeople at about 7.5 pm. The debate is heavily oversubscribed, so I am putting an informal time limit of two minutes on all speeches. Even with that I might not get everybody in, but let us see how it goes. I call the Chair of the Transport Committee.

--- Later in debate ---

[Layla Moran (Oxford West and Abingdon) (LD)]

I thank you for chairing the debate, Mrs Hobhouse, and congratulate my constituency neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Didcot and Wantage (Olly Glover), on securing it.

I am the MP for the dreaming spires. If we think Oxford, we think Headington stone and copper roofs and bicycles everywhere; indeed, 20% of people in Oxford commute to work by bike. I am also proud to be the MP for the No. 1 school in the country for cycling to school, Cherwell school in north Oxford: 58% of the students cycle and only 11% get there by car. In part, that is facilitated by an incredibly popular segregated cycle lane that runs all along the road towards the school, but many parents will point out that the cycle lane is at the very end of the commute to school, and there are no segregated cycle lanes all the way up the Banbury Road and the Woodstock Road. There was a plan for the Woodstock Road and a plan to look at feasibility on the Banbury Road, but the Labour city council decided that it wanted instead to spend the money on what local people call the vanity bridge to nowhere, elsewhere in Oxford. That was a crying shame, because the return on investment of segregated cycle lanes is not to be underestimated.

In Abingdon, we have our own problems. National cycle route 5 passes through the town centre, but cyclists need to dismount exactly halfway down the route. Councillor Neil Fawcett has been instrumental in securing funding for a redesign, as a result of which the route will be safer and faster.

Oxfordshire is led by the Liberal Democrats and we are greatly ambitious for cycling in our county. We want to increase the number of cycle trips from 600,000 a year to 1 million by 2031. My question to the Minister is: what other pots of money are there that we can bid for? Each one of these schemes is incredibly good value for money. They produce safer, faster and healthier schemes, which is what we all want for our constituents.

[Wera Hobhouse (in the Chair)]

I will impose a one-minute limit on speeches now, so that we can get as many in as possible.

--- Later in debate ---

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

To incentivise walking, wheeling and cycling, and to form habits, we need to invest in capital and revenue infrastructure, skills development and, above all, ambition—not least because half the number of girls as boys travel to school by bike. With Active Travel England in the heart of my constituency, I recognise the importance of that.

We need to ensure there is safe space around schools, as we have heard; that we slow traffic, as with Acomb primary school and Acomb Road; and that we stop the chaos outside schools, as with Our Lady Queen of Martyrs school on Hamilton Drive. We also need to ensure that school travel plans are active in driving the ambition that every family should be engaged in active travel. I ask the Minister to review that, and to encourage simple measures—as Chris Boardman says, we should use paint and plastic before the hard-wired infrastructure.

[Wera Hobhouse (in the Chair)]

I am sorry, but I will have to stop Back-Bench contributions here. Members have been incredibly good at sticking to a very tight time limit. I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Kohler]

I totally agree: that is exactly the type of thing that we must prioritise. Yes, money is tight, but we must spend it where it will be most effective.

We must integrate active travel infrastructure with public transport and key community sites, including schools. As my hon. Friend the Member for Didcot and Wantage and others made clear, it is key that we improve cycle training for everyone, including young people. We must give all children access to cycle training, which will teach them the skills they need to be confident at cycling. That will not only get them into habits that will last a lifetime, but will save lives. As we have heard repeatedly, Bikeability training is shown to lower fatalities and serious injuries on the road.

Those improvements must also come from working with communities and parents. Although there are parents who drive their children to school—

[Wera Hobhouse (in the Chair)]

Order. Will the hon. Gentleman bring his remarks quickly to a close?

[Mr Kohler]

I will. In conclusion, this is about more than roads; it is about the kind of communities that we want to build. Let us work together to improve active travel for our children and our adults.

Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Monday 7th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Heidi Alexander]

We increased the installation of EV charging infrastructure in rural areas by 45% in the last year. I hope that my hon. Friend and his constituents will start to see the fruits of that soon.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

Autonomous vehicles are the next step into the future. What discussions has the Secretary of State had with UK manufacturers to ensure that they can take full advantage of the next revolution in how we use cars?

[Heidi Alexander]

We regularly talk to manufacturers and other organisations that are interested in the move to connected and autonomous vehicles, and we are open to exploring how that might work in the UK. We need to do it in a safe way, but I am interested in how we might expedite trials in the UK. That is a subject that we are working on at the moment.

Oral Answers to Questions

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Thursday 27th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Simon Lightwood]

I will indeed join the hon. Gentleman in calling on the council to do just that. There has been a 40% uplift in the funding to tackle our highway backlog and potholes. Some of that money can be used on improving walkways and cycleways, which are part of the highway.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

Women cycle a lot less than men—71% of women do not cycle, compared with 54% of men. Safety concerns are the main barrier. That gender gap is not acceptable. What are the Government doing to address that?

[Simon Lightwood]

The hon. Lady raises a very important question, and I am passionate about this issue. She will be aware that the Government will be bringing forward a new road safety strategy—the first one in over a decade. Part of that will be looking at how we can address that imbalance and the perception of and actual issues with safety on our highways.

Oral Answers to Questions

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Thursday 13th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lilian Greenwood]

As the hon. Member knows, matters relating to taxation are for the Treasury rather than the Department for Transport, but I am sure that the Chancellor will be looking at the proposals that he brings forward.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

I welcome the increased uptake of electric vehicles. Indeed we do still need to dispel many myths. In my constituency, charging infrastructure is still a big issue, and the distribution networks struggle to speed up connecting to the infrastructure that is needed. Will the Minister outline what work she will do with distribution networks to increase the expansion of EV charging networks?

[Lilian Greenwood]

As I am sure the hon. Member knows, there has been a rapid increase in the roll-out of electric charging points—it was up by more than 40% last year. However, she is absolutely right that in some cases that roll-out is difficult, because it is held back by the availability of capacity on the network. That is precisely why we are working across Government, including with my colleagues in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, to unblock those things, so that we can ensure that everyone can access the electric vehicle charging points that they need close to home.

Road Safety: Schools

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Wednesday 29th January 2025 Westminster Hall

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

First of all, I want to congratulate the hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury (Aphra Brandreth) on securing this important debate. She spoke powerfully about the fact that our road safety has to be children-centred. I agree with her that 20 mph zones around schools should be the default position, and any council would then have to make an application stating why it should not happen.

We have heard from the hon. Member for Harlow (Chris Vince), the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), the hon. Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Tristan Osborne), my hon. Friend the Member for Honiton and Sidmouth (Richard Foord), the hon. Member for Hexham (Joe Morris), the hon. Member for Rugby (John Slinger) and the hon. Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae). I hope I got all their constituencies right. All the hon. Members told heartbreaking stories and gave sensible suggestions about how we can make roads around schools safer for children.

Road traffic accidents devastate families and communities and too many children are killed or injured where they should be safest. Every death is a tragedy, but it is not inevitable. Although there has been a reduction in the number of road fatalities in recent decades, particularly for children, there is still much more we can do. Over the past six years an average of 1,190 children have been injured each month within 500 metres of their school.

A third of road fatalities are caused by speeding. Bath community speed watch in my constituency, a bunch of highly dedicated and motivated people who stand for hours in all weather, have caught over 80,000 speeding vehicles. The volunteers do truly lifesaving work to reduce speed and dangerous collisions in Bath. I have talked to them, and as we have heard already, they often get abused for doing a job that saves lives. Speeding kills. Better enforcement of existing laws has been central to reducing death on our roads, and I was surprised to learn that almost half of traffic accidents occur between 3 pm and 6 pm, when children have already finished school. Bath community speed watch are therefore doing a very important job. They are also going into schools and educating young children on how to keep safe. I wish the children would then take home the message that the most dangerous thing is speeding cars, and also sometimes the way parents behave outside schools—something I have never understood in all my life as a parent, councillor or MP.

Families need to be less reliant on the car. However, far too many people do not have any alternatives to car travel because we do not have enough good bus services. Many of my young constituents have to rely on very bad bus services. All those things are linked. Young people do not cycle enough. Why? Because they do not get adequate training.

[Andy MacNae]

Will the hon. Member give way?

--- Later in debate ---

[Wera Hobhouse]

I fear I do not have time, but I am sure the hon. Member would make an excellent point.

Bikeability is an important scheme that we should all support, but the funding from the Department for Transport is currently not secure.

On average, nine young children are harmed on our roads every day, and 3,402 children aged seven and under were killed or injured on roads in Britain in 2022. There are many brilliant projects and many dedicated people who want to make a difference, but we need to do a lot more. To repeat what the hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury said, we need to create road safety that is centred entirely around children. They are the most vulnerable and they are the future generation. We cannot afford to see all those thousands of young people injured and killed on our roads, and 2025 should be the year when we make a big difference to that.

Airport Expansion

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Tuesday 28th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mike Kane]

I cannot agree more. The Government’s defined mission will be growth. The aviation sector is one where we can grow the economy, because it provides the connectivity and the high-skilled, trade unionised jobs that support families and careers right across our country.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

Before the Minister asks me where I was during the sustainable aviation fuels debate, I was here. Having 22% SAF by 2040 still means 78% fossil fuels in aircraft fuel—an awful lot. My constituents are impacted by Bristol airport expansion. I meet regularly with my local group Stop Bristol Airport Expansion group. They want to know what impact assessment has been made of the cumulative effect of the additional carbon emissions that will be created by all the proposed airport expansion plans taken together.

[Mike Kane]

I thank the hon. Member. She is actually right, and well done to her for being there during the SAF debate and supporting the Government.

At the moment, the technology does not exist to fully decarbonise aviation. We are looking at hydrogen, we have the advanced fuels fund and we are investing £1 billion in the ATI, but, as the Prime Minister announced recently when he went to Merseyside, we are investing billions in carbon capture and other technology to offset those emissions. That is what we will have to do in the near future, but I envisage a day when we will have aircraft in our skies, particularly internally in the UK, with zero emissions coming out of their tailpipes.

Oral Answers to Questions

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Heidi Alexander]

I thank my hon. Friend for his kind words, and I assure him that the Government are committed to improving local transport across individual local authority boundaries. We have provided more than £1 billion in funding to the Greater Manchester combined authority in his area, which takes a strategic approach to managing transport across its region. My right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister has also set out ambitious measures in the recent “English Devolution” White Paper to support more joined-up running of local transport networks, which people rely upon every day.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

I welcome the Secretary of State to the Dispatch Box, and say happy birthday to the Aviation Minister. Buses in my constituency are not adequate and the situation has been made worse since the £2 fare cap was lifted. Local authorities in Bath want to improve the situation. They want to franchise bus services themselves, but their hands are tied by the Labour West of England combined authority Mayor, who refuses to do so. What should local authorities such as Bath do?

[Heidi Alexander]

The Government stepped in to ensure that bus fares would not explode at the beginning of this year, when the £2 fare cap that the previous Government legislated for ran out. In the worst-case scenario, costs on some services could have increased by 650%, and it was important that we took that action to ensure such fare rises were avoidable. I advise her local authority to work through any issues with the regional mayor. It is vital that we see transport authorities of all types collaborating to ensure that we have good, high-frequency, high-quality bus services for local people to go about their daily lives.

Oral Answers to Questions

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Thursday 21st November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Louise Haigh]

The former Prime Minister managed to ask two questions, because he asked his first behind the Chair earlier. I am more than happy to meet him to discuss the A66, which we are considering and which provides that crucial northern trans-Pennine connectivity. I reassure him that we take road safety seriously, particularly on that section of road. We are in the process of developing the first road safety strategy in more than a decade.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

Bath’s council is consulting on creating 6.2 km of cycle roads. The recent £100 million increase to the active travel fund is welcome, but councils need long-term funding. Will the Secretary of State commit to long-term funding of the active travel plans?

[Louise Haigh]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right, and we were pleased to overturn the previous Government’s cuts to Active Travel England, ensuring that it can help authorities such as Bath scale up their capability and capacity and deliver those important active travel routes. As we look towards the second phase of the spending review, the ambition is absolutely to move to multi- year settlements, deliver that important consistency and sustainability for local authorities.

Bus Funding

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Monday 18th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Louise Haigh]

My hon. Friend is entirely right. Tees Valley has done very well out of today’s funding settlement, and I would encourage the Mayor to consider franchising options to deliver better bus services for the whole area. I can also confirm that through the better buses Bill we will be lifting the ideological ban on public ownership, so my hon. Friend can certainly consider working with his local authority to set up a publicly owned bus company if the Mayor does not choose to avail himself of those powers.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

My young constituents in Bathampton who attend Ralph Allen school have to put up with an atrocious service. They first have to go into Bath city centre, and then they have to take a second bus out again, halfway back to where they came from, to get to school; they often miss school because of the infrequency of the services, and they pay twice. A direct service would be cheaper, better and safer. Bath council wants to make services better and franchise them directly, but the West of England Mayor is preventing that. Will the Secretary of State please urge the Mayor to listen to west of England authorities and allow them to franchise services directly and bring buses back under local control?

[Louise Haigh]

With her example, the hon. Lady describes exactly what franchising is designed to provide: the ability to design the services that people rely on and ensure that schoolchildren have a direct route to school. I would encourage all our mayoral colleagues to take forward franchising.

Rail Performance

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Louise Haigh]

I was absolutely horrified, on entering the Department, to learn that there had been no routine ministerial oversight, in any sense of the word, of HS2 for some time. We immediately established a cross-ministerial taskforce, comprising me and the Treasury, to oversee HS2’s costs. I have written to the chair to make it clear that, beyond safety, his first and abiding priority is to bring down costs. I have commissioned a governance review, led by James Stewart. We will look at the structure of HS2 Ltd, which has been too much at arm’s length, and too free to spend taxpayers’ money for too long.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

GWR, which serves my Bath constituency, has been performing in the most disappointing way, to say the least. Especially on Sundays, cancellations and delays are the new norm. Engineering works are among the problems, but the train driver shortage is the biggest problem. What exactly will resolving what the Secretary of State calls the rest day working issue mean for my constituents? When does she expect them to see tangible change?

[Louise Haigh]

The problem across the entire railway is that we do not have sufficient drivers or staff, so too many parts of the railways are reliant on rest day working agreements. We should not have to rely on people volunteering to come on shift in order to run a Sunday service, but unfortunately that is the case at Great Western Railway. We will not be harmonising contracts or terms and conditions at Great British Railways, as we have established, but we need to get drivers and conductors on modern terms and conditions that reflect the railway that we need. We are attempting to address the specific issue at Great Western Railway; as I say, we will come back to the House soon with an update on progress.