Louise Haigh: a Transport Secretary committed to “moving fast and fixing things”

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh was in the limelight over the last week – with her first appearance in front of the Transport Select Committee, laying the groundwork for her department’s role as a critical enabler of the mission-led government; and a rare appearance on the weekend broadcast round, joining Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

While Haigh has had a relatively low-level public presence to date, she presides over some of this term’s biggest Bills, including legislation to bring the railways back into public ownership, to create Great British Railways (GBR) and to give local leaders greater powers over their bus services.

Performance-wise, in the Select Committee appearance, Haigh remained focused and on message in what can be a high-pressure environment.

Although the Labour heavy make-up of Select Committees suggests Secretaries of State can expect softer interrogation tactics, at least for their opening evidence sessions – the Committee itself is made up of newcomers, with exception of the Chair Ruth Cadbury, who has served on the Committee for many years.

Her communication was less-sure-footed in conversation with Laura Kuenssberg.

While she was clear on the message she wanted to deliver (that every recent decision, from settling the industrial action on the railways, to retaining but increasing the bus fare cap, was aimed at delivering a reliable service), a number of her off-the-cuff responses may come back to haunt her – including the quotable line, while noting that GBR will be an arms-length body, that “I have no experience running a rail service”. Her criticism of DP World overshadowing the government’s recent Investment Summit got another minute of prime airtime, restricting her opportunity to focus on policy changes.

Some of our key takeaways from these two recent appearances include:

Reliability is key

Throughout the Transport Secretary’s conversation with Laura Kuenssberg’s, policy decisions were framed consistently in terms of one outcome – the reliability and frequency of services.

Haigh was clear on her view that ending rail industrial disputes has improved reliability and reduced cancellations that was undermining confidence in the network; while the raised-but-retained £3 bus cap ensured that rural services in particular were viable, and the subsidy protected a regular service throughout the day.

Public ownership is not the “silver bullet” of rail reform

With three pieces of rail legislation set to be introduced to Parliament this term, rail took centre stage in the Select Committee session. Perhaps the most surprising moment was Haigh’s announcement of expected timings for the Railways Bill, which is responsible for enshrining GBR, and due to be laid next summer.

Haigh warned not to underestimate the scale of the reform challenge, and the Railways Bill will be much more substantive than the “very simple” Public Ownership Bill to give the Transport Secretary powers to bring franchises into public ownership. A consultation will be launched shortly, and progress is already underway through the creation of Shadow GBR. Haigh told the Committee that GBR could be operational at the end of 2026 at the earliest.

When pushed on the benefits of public ownership by Laura Kuenssberg – who noted that existing public operators such as Northern continue to face significant challenges – Haigh highlighted the importance she attached to GBR as an arms-length operator managing an integrated track and train network. The situation that had developed since the Covid pandemic, where the DfT regularly intervenes on a range of issues across the network, while also not having full strategic control, was not regarded as the poster child for public control.

Local leaders are central to the government’s vision for public transport

The remit of devolved mayors and local leaders will be bolstered under the government’s plans for bus and rail. On rail, devolved leaders can expect a statutory role as part of GBR, to give them accountability and ensure decisions are made as close to the ground as possible.

On bus, the government will give control to and upskill local authorities to effectively plan and deliver integrated networks to meet the needs of communities.

Haigh reflected on the lessons learned from Greater Manchester’s implementation of the Bee Network, calling it “ridiculous” that it took six years to bring a single bus under public control. Her comment to Laura Kuenssberg that “no one should be buying three separate bus tickets … you’d buy a travel-card”, potentially overlooking the impact of cross-border or cross-operator journeys, hints that technological solutions to consumer problems are welcome.

The Better Buses Bill will dramatically speed up the franchising process, Haigh hopes down to as little as two years, streamlining the auditing process and removing some of the operator’s ability to challenge decisions.

£1bn of subsidy to retain the bus fare cap will be welcomed by local government – although Laura Kuenssberg’s challenge that the 50% rise in the fare cap will see many paying significantly more to get to work emphasises a communications challenge both the government and operators will face, as passengers struggle to square such a large infusion of funds with simultaneously rising prices.

Micromobility will have its moment, but not in the immediate future

Haigh was probed during the Committee session on the e-scooter trails taking place across the country and asked what the data shows and whether she intends to bring forward legislation to regulate the use of e-scooters. Haigh said there wasn’t time in this Parliamentary session to introduce this yet, but confirmed the department will look to legislate as it’s clearly required.

She stated that expressions of interest for more trials are out now and there has been significant interest because e-scooters can be an “effective part” of the network. However, issues around parking and street clutter need addressing through regulation.

Road safety is a priority across government

Road policy announcements under this government so far have largely focused on maintenance with increasing funding in the Budget to fix more potholes, with the decision to freeze fuel duty also receiving a welcome mention in Kuenssberg’s introduction to Haigh.

In front of the Committee, Haigh reflected on recent meetings she and the Future of Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood have held with road safety campaigners. The first road safety strategy in over a decade is currently underway, which Haigh emphasised should be cross-departmental, potentially with involvement from the Department for Education and Ministry of Justice. She warned that road accidents have become normalised and treated as if they are a “natural accident”, but if similar numbers of people being killed happened in any other way it would be treated as a pandemic.