The Labour party claimed a landslide victory in the 2024 general election – and that means the UK will soon see some changes to its transport legislation. Here at Parkers, we’ve sifted through the Labour manifesto (and we’re keeping a keen eye on what’s happening in the Commons) to bring you all the latest updates.
Understandably, the 2024 Labour manifesto focused on pressing national issues such as kickstarting economic growth, bolstering our clean energy industry, tackling crime, reforming the NHS and restructuring the country’s childcare and education systems.
With all that to worry about, you’d think the party wouldn’t have enough time to fix the nation’s transport issues. But Labour will need to make time, because transport legislation affects a huge percentage of the public.
The Office for National Statistics states that, in 2022, 75% of people in England aged 17 and over held full driving licences. That means most of the UK population will feel the direct impact of any new pieces of transport legislation the new government introduces.
We’ve compiled a list of the top five changes Labour is proposing for Britain’s motorists. Scroll down to find out what they are and how they’ll impact you.
What changes are Labour proposing?
Reinstating the 2030 ban on petrol and diesel cars
Labour biggest proposed transport policy change is to reverse the previous government’s decision to extend the petrol and diesel car ban from 2030 to 2035.
To be clear, this change will only be for new petrol and diesel cars. If you have an older combustion engine car, you’ll be able to continue driving it after the 2030 deadline.
Labour hasn’t yet announced the change in the Commons, but the Department for Transport has already confirmed to Parkers that the deadline will be reverted.
In its manifesto, Labour said: ‘Labour will […] give certainty to manufacturers by restoring the phase-out date of 2030 for new cars with internal combustion engines.’
The U-turn means new car buyers will need to make the switch to an electric car sooner than they planned under the previous government’s revised timeline – and car makers have had to readjust their product plans to suit this tighter deadline.
Interestingly, if Labour can stick to its 2030 deadline, it’ll mean that British new car buyers will go electric-only five years sooner than the rest of Europe.
Road network planning and fixing ‘one million potholes’
Rachel Reeves, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, confirmed in July 2024 that several UK transport infrastructure projects will be cancelled. She said this will save £785 million of public money, which Labour reckons will be better spent elsewhere.
The cancelled road projects include the controversial A303 tunnel that was scheduled to be built under Stonehenge and the A27 Arundel bypass. Plus, Labour will ditch the Tory plan to restore dozens of closed railway lines.
Labour included a brief fiscal plan in its 2024 manifesto. It said the scrapping of the A27 bypass would save £65 million of public money – and the party pledged to reinvest that cash on repairing ‘up to one million additional potholes’ every year.
Regulate insurance prices to prevent rip-offs
The cost of car insurance has soared by 40% in just two years. According to Mustard, the price of an average yearly policy in 2024 costs £1,361 compared to £919 in 2022. That’s putting unfair pressure on drivers – especially those on low incomes.
Labour acknowledged this issue in its manifesto, saying it ‘will further support drivers by tackling the soaring cost of car insurance.’ However, the party hasn’t yet expanded on how it aims to bring the prices down to a sensible level.
Accelerating Britain’s EV charging infrastructure
To reinforce its decision on the 2030 combustion car ban, Labour said it ‘will support the transition to electric vehicles by accelerating the roll out of charge points.’
Again, Labour hasn’t yet provided figures for how many chargers it’ll build or how much the project will cost. However, the party has previously said it would release additional funding to pay for the project and lift planning permission restrictions for EV chargers to allow them to be built faster.
Back in 2023, the party also said it would ‘set quality standards for information provided on charging apps.’ The hope is that drivers will then know whether a charge point is operational before they arrive at it.
Introducing a standardised method of measuring EV battery health
This was a throwaway comment in Labour’s transport plans, but we think it’s quite a significant proposal. Labour says it will support ‘buyers of second-hand electric cars by standardising the information supplied on the condition of [their] batteries.’
This scheme goes hand-in-hand with Labour’s 2030 plan – and, like the party’s hopes of reforming the UK’s car insurance market, it’s designed to help motorists avoid scams and make more informed buying decisions.
This is important. Because EV technology is so new, most drivers don’t know how to check for warning signs of a battered battery pack – and two seemingly identical electric vehicles of the same age can have very different battery healths depending on how they’ve been charged and driven.
So, an EV that’s been charged exclusively at DC rapid chargers will likely have a poorer battery health than one that’s primarily been charged at a gentler AC wallbox. If this policy becomes law, it should help drivers dodge the lemons on the used market.
Labour hasn’t yet explained how it plans to achieve this goal, but we’ll update you as soon as we know more.
What this means for you
After the most recent developments in the Commons, we’re not sure. On 29 July, the new Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced she’d found a £22 billion hole in the UK’s finances – and she accused her predecessor Jeremy Hunt of hiding the overspend from the public. That means Labour’s transport polices could change again as it tries balances the books.
The change most likely to impact you in the short term is the reversal of the 2035 petrol and diesel car ban extension. If Labour can meet its promise to drag the deadline back to 2030, you may be forced to adopt a new electric car sooner than you’d like.
On the flip side, if you already drive an electric car, your life could be able to get easier as the government will need to build more electric car charging points to support the increased number of EVs on our roads. The big question is how rates of electric car taxation in the form of VED and BIK will shape up in the coming years.
Here at Parkers, we’re not convinced the nation is prepared to switch to electric power just yet. Electric cars still cost far more than their petrol-powered equivalents – and the UK’s new car sales figures show that buyers are losing confidence in EVs.
To get drivers behind the wheels of new electric cars, we reckon the Labour government will need to reintroduce some form of plug-in car grant to incentivise people.
