Labour vows to electrify England's entire bus fleet by 2030

The Labour party has pledged to electrify England’s entire bus fleet by 2030, promising to bring services “into the future”.

Jeremy Corbyn said “the Westminster bubble” didn’t care about buses, despite the fact that so many people rely on them. He said the Conservatives had overseen the cancellation or reduction of 3,000 routes across the country leaving people “isolated and stuck at home”.

His party plans to electrify all of England’s 35,000 buses by 2030, reducing their emissions by 72%, and fund a reverse in the cuts to services as well as creating new ones.

Labour has pledged to give local authorities the power to regulate bus services and create council-owned bus companies, allowing them to bring down the cost of tickets. In areas where bus services are brought into public control, bus travel would be free to under-25s.

“The Westminster bubble doesn’t care about buses but cuts to bus routes leave so many people isolated, stuck at home and unable to make vital trips out,” said Corbyn.

“Away from London, many people have approached me in this election to talk about their local bus route closing down.

“This policy will bring our bus services into the future and help to revitalise our high streets and rebuild local communities. We want people to be proud of their local bus service.”

Labour's 'green new deal' - or 'green industrial revolution' - proposes a massive programme of state investment to rapidly decarbonise the economy, creating hundreds of thousands of green jobs, and transforming the way people live - from upgrading the housing stock to revitalising public transport, tackling the UK’s air pollution crisis to moving towards a more sustainable agricultural model.

Although the initial investment would be huge, advocates say that would be dwarfed by the cost of not tackling the escalating climate crisis and point to wide-ranging economic benefits in the medium term, positioning the UK at the forefront of the emerging green industries, which are expected to dominate in the coming years.

Crucially, the green new deal would tie radical environmental action to a worker-led “just transition”, where the rapid move from a carbon-based economy to a sustainable system is led by – and benefits – ordinary people. Its advocates say jobs in carbon-intensive industries would be replaced by – among others – those in wind, solar, house building and transport infrastructure.

Labour's manifesto put the green new deal at the centre of its 2019 election campaign. The idea has also been championed by leading Democratic presidential candidates in the US 2020 race. Internationally, its supporters say any such proposal must also recognise the west’s historic responsibility for the crisis - and its global nature - and support a just transition in the developing world through transfers of technology and finance, while welcoming migrants.

Matthew Taylor

Approximately 700 of the 35,000 buses in England are currently electric, most of which are in London. Labour calculates that the cost of electrifying the rest of the fleet over a 10-year period would be under £4bn, and would be funded through their £250bn Green Transformation Fund.

The party said its costing was based on analysis of the price difference between electric and conventional buses, and included estimates for reimbursing owners of conventional buses for retiring the vehicles early.

Based on the 2018 average electricity grid mix, electric buses create 72% less greenhouse gas emissions than standard diesel buses.

The shadow transport secretary, Andy McDonald, accused the Conservative party of not caring about “buses nor the people and communities who rely on them”.

Related: Tories promise £4bn for public transport in Midlands and north

“The Tories’ manifesto didn’t pledge a penny to reverse a decade of cuts to local bus services,” he said. “Buses are by far the most used and most important form of public transport but huge budget cuts have caused bus use to plummet to an all time low.”

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, hit back, saying: “Labour’s war on the motorist continues apace.”

“Labour won’t be able to deliver a modern bus network because they would raid the roads’ budget and scrap vital new roads and upgrades to fund their fantasy giveaways,” he said. “Corbyn’s Labour would bring gridlock to our roads and gridlock to parliament with their plans for another two chaotic referendums next year.”