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Category: Transportation

  • Sadiq Khan – 2022 Statement on TFL Funding (July 2022)

    Sadiq Khan – 2022 Statement on TFL Funding (July 2022)

    The statement made by Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, on 28 July 2022.

    Today, the Government has given TfL a short-term extension to the current emergency funding deal until 3rd August 2022. This is only necessary as the Government shared the long overdue draft proposal for a funding settlement to TfL late last Friday, and it’s right that time is taken to thoroughly scrutinise the offer and understand it’s impact on Londoners and TfL services.

    This is a £10bn transport authority that is crucial to supporting jobs and economic growth across the country. TfL must consider if this draft proposal provides the funding needed in order to avoid having to make painful cuts, and it’s in no one’s interest to have conditions attached to this funding deal that come at a cost – damaging TfL, unfairly punishing Londoners and our economic recovery.

  • William Harcourt – 1884 Statement on the Explosion at Victoria Station

    William Harcourt – 1884 Statement on the Explosion at Victoria Station

    The statement made by William Harcourt, the then Home Secretary, in the House of Commons on 28 February 1884.

    Sir, last night, at Charing Cross Station, in consequence of the information that had been received, the clerks particularly observed and searched the luggage there. That was about half-past 11 o’clock at night. I had better, perhaps, read the words of the Report on the matter which I have had from the police— 11.30 P.M. yesterday.—James Chamberlain, second cloak-room clerk, when looking over the stored luggage, lifted up a shabby black American-leather portmanteau, two feet by twelve inches, and finding that the weight of the contents was all on one side, he became suspicious, and opened the portmanteau with a duplicate key, finding, on the right hand side, well covered by some newspapers, a quantity of dirty white-looking cakes of an oily nature, four inches by two inches, packed closely around a tin box in the centre, the box being about four inches square, and the edges hermetically sealed with black sealing wax, and parts of an old pair of trousers pushed in between to fill up the space. The left-hand well only contained half an old coat, torn down the middle of the back. This having been discovered, the box and the material were sent to be examined by Colonel Majendie. I have seen it myself to-day. The tin box was about 6 or 8 inches square. It was a small japanned tin box. It appears it contained a clock—one of the ordinary small clocks that are to be seen in the shops—of American manufacture. It had arranged behind it a small pistol, which was so arranged that by the clock-work it should explode a cap. In proximity to this was placed a cake of a species of dynamite which is unknown in this country, and which is not used here, nor manufactured here, called Atlas Powder. In that cake of dynamite were six of the detonators for exploding dynamite, and loosely arranged round the box, in the portmanteau, were 40 of these cakes, amounting to about 20 lb. weight of dynamite. It appeared that the clock-work had let off the pistol, but the cap had missed fire, in the midst of this dynamite. It is a remarkable circumstance that Colonel Majendie has discovered, at the Victoria Station, in a state of semi-fusion, but quite sufficient to identify it, a mainspring of an exactly similar clock, so there cannot be smallest doubt that the two attempts were made identically in the same way. This dynamite was deposited at the Charing Cross Station on the same night as the explosion at Victoria Station, and the ticket on the portmanteau shows that it was deposited between 7 and 9 on Monday the 25th instant.

    Since I came to the House I received the following Report from the police:— Mr. Hart, of the Great Western Railway, has just called on me to say that a portmanteau has been found at their station, containing what appears to be similar cakes of dynamite to that found at Charing Cross, and a clock-work arrangement, which, from the description, appears to be the same as that at Charing Cross. So that there are clearly three deposits of this character, all evidently of the same sorts, and olearly with the same object. The most significant part of the matter, as I have already stated, is that the explosive used is one which is not known, or manufactured, or used in commerce in this country. It is one with which, unfortunately, I am very familiar, because it has been discovered many times in connection with attempted explosions—some of which succeeded, and some did not—at Glasgow, at Liverpool, and in London. It is a ligneous composition of dynamite. Is is manufactured, as we know, in America, and, as far as Colonel Majendie knows, it has never been seen here except in connection with these explosions in this country.

  • Kit Malthouse – 2022 Comments on Travel Disruption

    Kit Malthouse – 2022 Comments on Travel Disruption

    The comments made by Kit Malthouse, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, on 29 July 2022.

    I know that travel disruption can affect all of us, whether you need to commute to work, travel to visit your friends, family or loved ones, get away on your well earned Summer break or even attend an event like our fantastic Commonwealth Games. I am working with ministers and officials right across government, as well as our partners and industry, to assess and mitigate any disruption, including any knock on effects from the rail strikes.

    We have already taken action, and continue to work with the Port of Dover, Eurotunnel, and the French Government, National Highways, local police and the Kent Resilience Forum on minimising traffic disruption, and also with our airport operators to avoid last minute cancellations, and we will continue to take all the necessary steps to help people travel easily.

  • Andrew MacKinlay – 1994 Speech on Fenchurch Street Station

    Andrew MacKinlay – 1994 Speech on Fenchurch Street Station

    The speech made by Andrew MacKinlay, the Labour MP for Thurrock, in the House of Commons on 17 March 1994. The speech was made at 05:15.

    I begin the debate which I have initiated on the impact on the commuters of the closure of Fenchurch Street station and Limehouse station for seven weeks this summer by apologising to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and to the House, its servants and its officers for detaining them at this unearthly hour. I extend that apology to the Minister and to his colleague, the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr. Patnick), who, on a personal level, are always courteous. Nevertheless, I shall not hesitate to criticise the Government and their stewardship of our railway network as it affects east London and Essex, despite the fact that the Minister has always been courteous and helpful to me about constituency matters.

    The fact that Back-Benchers have to raise important issues at ridiculous hours of the day and night reflects the imbalance of the way in which we do things in this House. Before I depart from the House, my ambition is that the balance between Government business and BackBenchers’ debates will have been altered. Government business should be held in the middle of the night and Back-Benchers’ initiatives should be held during the day. I have already been in the Palace for 21 hours, working on parliamentary business. It is absurd that we hold these debate so late when the Minister, like me, has a full diary for the day ahead.

    Having got that point off my chest, I state clearly that I do not question the urgent need for the resignalling works on the line that goes from Fenchurch Street to Southend, via my constituency of Thurrock and the constituency of Basildon; nor do I minimise the urgent need for Fenchurch Street station and other stations along that line to be refurbished and for the track to be renewed. Indeed, that work is long overdue, but I question whether, to complete those works, it is necessary to close Fenchurch Street and Limehouse stations for seven weeks from 22 July. Had the Government and managers of Network SouthEast been alive to the decay of the London-Tilbury-Southend and Great Eastern lines and their stations, those closures would not have been necessary. They are a direct consequence of years of neglect and indifference by the Secretary of State and his predecessors under this Administration.

    My constituents will suffer enormous additional delay and inconvenience as a result of that neglect. The impact will be quite awful for the thousands of commuters who travel from East Tilbury, Tilbury, Grays and, to a lesser extent, South Ockendon stations. They would wish me to place on record their considerable irritation at the inconvenience that they face this summer. The problem is not exclusive to my constituency but will affect thousands of commuters from Essex and east London, Southend, Shoeburyness, Basildon, Pitsea, Upminster, Dagenham Dock and particularly Barking. Some 19,000 commuters a day use Barking station and there is already considerable congestion and problems for commuters interlining from that station on their way to work in London.

    When Fenchurch Street and Limehouse stations close this summer, Network SouthEast intends that the bulk of commuters travelling from Essex will disembark at Barking and join the already heavily used, if not overloaded, District and Metropolitan underground lines from Barking. Commuters who normally interline with the docklands light railway at Limehouse station will have an additional problem to get to their place of work in the new docklands development area.

    The closures will affect not only travellers to Barking but commuters living in Barking. Had my late colleague Jo Richardson still been with us, I am sure that she would have participated in this debate because of the enormous impact that the closure of Fenchurch Street station will have on the Barking and Dagenham constituents. I regret that no other hon. Members whose constituents will be affected by the closures are in the Chamber. In fairness, the right hon. Member for Southend, West (Mr. Channon) is indisposed. He takes a keen interest in transport matters, having been a former Transport Secretary, and is also my chairman on the Transport Select Committee. I am sure that, had it been possible, he would have been here tonight. The inescapable fact remains, however, that there are Essex Conservative Members who should have been here tonight to speak up for their commuters, who will be greatly disadvantaged by the closures.

    I have been a consistent and unashamed critic, not just of the Government and their transport policy, but of the managers of Network SouthEast, who do not respond as they should to the interests of commuters. They make cosmetic efforts to recognise those interests, but I am not satisfied that they properly champion consumers’ interests in their dealings with the Government. Were they to fulfil the spirit of their duties as line managers they would join me in criticising the Government for their chronic underfunding of the lines, which in turn has led to the chaos of one of London’s oldest mainline stations being closed for seven weeks in the summer.

    The managers make some attempt to acknowledge the interests of commuters. Just this morning, they issued commuters with a glossy brochure entitled, “LTS Newsline: Customer Newsletter”. The banner headline reads: Station to shut for seven weeks”. The second page of the document is headed: LTS moves towards shadow franchise”. It goes on: The senior management team headed by Chris KinchinSmith, divisional director of LTS, has already expressed its initial willingness to mount a bid for the line, providing the terms of the franchise are acceptable. I hope that the Minister will acknowledge that during the tortuous debates on rail privatisation, in the House and in the Select Committee, we were assured both by the Minister and by the chairman of British Rail that line managers who might be contemplating putting in a bid for a franchise should keep that interest separate from their operational role. Mr. Kinchin-Smith and his colleagues, in a document paid for by commuters through their fares, are flagging up an interest in bidding for a franchise—that clearly runs contrary to the spirit of those undertakings. I hope that the Minister will accept that, and that his Department will tick off people who are mixing up their responsibilities in this way.

    Another sign that the legitimate interests of commuters are being ignored is the lack of facilities for the travelling public. The document also tells commuters that no toilets will be available for their use at Barking station, the main inter-line station, which is due to accommodate a great many more travellers this summer. That is symptomatic of the decay of the line and its understaffing by Network SouthEast and it is wholly unacceptable. It is not unreasonable to say that the line and its passengers must be properly looked after. It is a very bad state of affairs if they cannot provide WCs for commuters.

    I move to the central issue of the debate—the closure of the Fenchurch Street main line station. Mr. Chris Kinchin-Smith says: We know this work will cause severe disruption for many of our customers”. My word, he can say that again; it is the understatement of the year. He then argues that the temporary closure of Fenchurch Street station is essential.

    As I have said, I have no way of testing whether it is essential or unavoidable now, but it could have been avoided had there been proper funding and planning of the refurbishment and restoration of the line in previous years. The Government and the line management failed to acknowledge that, despite the fact that I and other Labour Members have been drawing attention to the problems of the misery line for a number of years.

    The management’s document says that the station will be closed when many passengers take their holiday. That is very kind of them, but the fact that the work will be carried out in July or August will not greatly reduce the irritation to customers. We are not a town that has a “holiday week”. Thurrock does not close down and nor does Essex. In the south-east of England, in modern times, holidays straddle the summer months. It is of no great consolation to us that the work will be conducted in the summer and it is nonsense to suggest that that is any great concession to the fare-paying customers.

    In their document, the managers of network SouthEast also say: We are working closely with London Underground”. I am not sure that that is so. Dear old London Underground has been told there about the closure of Fenchurch Street and Limehouse station and has to live with it.

    In the past 24 hours, I have corresponded with the senior public affairs executive of London Underground. She replied: The eastern section of the District Line is currently operating the optimum level of service possible and therefore additional trains can not be provided by the line — that is the District line— during the 7 week closure period.”. The management of London Underground are in no position significantly to abate the problems of commuters from Essex; nor can they do anything to affect the impact on the existing underground customers who will also suffer through increased congestion on already overcrowded underground trains.

    I also criticise the management because their glossy and expensive document does not give much time or attention to the problems that will be faced exclusively by my constituents on the Tilbury loop line. The section headed, “Your Questions Answered”, contains hardly any reference to mitigating the problems for my constituents, apart from telling us that present proposals include the Tilbury line and that all stopping services will terminate at Barking with onward travel by tube. It then gives us the good news that LTS tickets will be valid on the underground.

    I have been fighting a continuing battle with Network SouthEast about its penalty fares scheme and how it relates to the closure of Fenchurch Street. I support the principle of the penalty fare scheme, but the management of Network SouthEast on the London-Tilbury-Southend line have been unable to maintain the ticket machines so that honest fare-paying passengers can purchase a ticket and avoid the embarrassment of having to defend their position when an inspector gets on the train. It is a wholly unsatisfactory state of affairs when, night after night on the main concourse of Fenchurch Street station, it is impossible, unless one has the exact fare, to purchase a ticket for use on that line. If Fenchurch Street station is to be refurbished, I hope that the management are able to get their act together. Apparently the machines there are supposed to be self-replenishing in change, but they do not self-replenish and the management seem incapable of arranging for people to empty them and fill them up with change.

    The situation gets worse. If more people have to change at Barking on to London Underground, which is also introducing a penalty fares scheme from the beginning of this financial year, it makes it even more imperative that passengers are able to purchase a ticket or permit to travel at stations in Essex. I hope that the Minister will take that on board and ensure that the management of London Underground and Network SouthEast understand that that is a reasonable expectation and demand by the commuters in view of the penalty fares policy.

    I want to ask the Minister some questions. First, what compensation will commuters who are disadvantaged by the lengthy closure of Fenchurch Street station receive? They do not have a good service at the present time. Despite what the management say, the journeys are still erratic in terms of punctuality. Their problems will be compounded. I guess that the vast majority of commuters from Essex will have each day an additional three quarters of an hour travelling time, at least, to their place of work in London as a result of the closure. That is not fair when one bears in mind that commuters from Southend, if travelling only on the LTS line, pay £1,912 per annum for their season ticket. If they are travelling LTS and Great Eastern, the season ticket costs £2,056 per annum. In my constituency, commuters from Tilbury pay £1,564 per annum. At that price, bearing in mind the problems that they will experience this summer, they are entitled to a rebate. I hope that the Minister will consider that matter and make the appropriate recommendation to the management of Network SouthEast.

    Secondly, is the Minister able to give me an assurance that when the work is complete following the closure of Fenchurch Street and Limehouse stations, there will be no further hiatus for commuters from Essex? I ask that because I have no confidence about the frankness of the management of Network SouthEast. For example, they did not mention the possibility of this closure until it was almost unavoidable. They must have known about it a year or two ago, but they did not tell us. I have a deep suspicion that there will be further closures of stations along the LTS line in the coming months or perhaps the next two years. If I am wrong, I would welcome that correction and reassurance from the Minister.

    Thirdly, after significant sums of public money have been spent on refurbishing the LTS line and Fenchurch Street station, will the station be fully used to the advantage of the Essex commuters? Each evening, commuters wanting to get back to Essex are faced with the absurd irritation of having to look at the clock and decide whether to head for Fenchurch Street station or Liverpool Street station. About halfway through the evening, Fenchurch Street is closed and those travelling to Essex must use Liverpool Street.

    Fenchurch Street is a mainline station. It services my constituents on the Tilbury loop, and many others who want to get to towns between London and Southend. I do not think it unreasonable to expect those people to be able to board a train at Fenchurch Street throughout the evening. I hope that, following the expenditure on Fenchurch street, that problem will be remedied and a proper service will be restored.

    Although I have tempered my remarks, I hope that the Minister will understand why I legitimately accuse the Government of neglecting the line. They are, to a large extent, to blame for the problems that will be experienced this summer by my constituents and by people living throughout Essex and in east London. Some of the blame must lie with the management of Network SouthEast but, putting that aside, I hope that the Minister will tell us that he will have a further meeting with the management to establish whether the work can be completed without closing the station.

    I feel that, although it might be inconvenient and involve some additional cost to Network SouthEast, the work could be completed in the middle of the night and over a series of weekends. It might take a good deal longer, but the disadvantage to computers would be a good deal less. I suspect that a seven-week closure of Fenchurch Street station is the easy way out for the management, rather than being truly unavoidable. I hope that the Minister will investigate that.

    I also hope that the Minister will establish whether it will be possible to increase capacity on London Underground during the closure of Fenchurch Street—assuming that it goes ahead—and that he will ensure that passengers can purchase tickets from properly maintained machines, both on that line and throughout the Network SouthEast area. That is not happening now. Finally, I hope that commuters will be told about any other anticipated problems months, if not years, in advance, rather than those problems’ being sprung on them with the minimum notice.

    I expect the Minister to say that Network SouthEast has consulted local Members of Parliament, because that is what Network SouthEast told me today. It is true that Mr. Kinchin-Smith has invited me to meet him, and I look forward to arranging a mutually convenient date. What he has never done, however, is write to me, as a Member of Parliament, saying, “We have a problem: we are going to have to close Fenchurch Street station, which will affect your commuters.” All I got was a press release, some weeks weeks ago—not even a letter. I do not protest about that discourtesy on my own behalf, but I am protesting on behalf of my constituents and other commuters from Essex. It shows the way in which the management of the line treat their customers.

    I hope that we will receive some reassurance from the Minister and that, as a consequence, the enormous chaos will be avoided for commuters this summer.

  • Douglas Hogg – 1989 Parliamentary Answer on Vigilantes on the London Underground

    Douglas Hogg – 1989 Parliamentary Answer on Vigilantes on the London Underground

    The Parliamentary answer given by Douglas Hogg, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office, in the House of Commons on 27 January 1989.

    Mr. Atkinson

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has had any discussions with the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis on the independent establishment of vigilante groups on the London Underground; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr. Douglas Hogg

    No. Policing the London Underground is the responsibility of the British Transport police. About 80 police officers from the Metropolitan and City of London police forces are to be loaned to the British Transport police L Division for the next 12 months. If the Guardian Angels or any other group act unlawfully or engage in conduct likely to provoke a breach of the peace, they cannot expect to be exempt from the ordinary processes of the law. But these would be operational issues for the police to consider.

  • Herbert Morrison – 1929 Parliamentary Answer on Open Doors on the London Underground

    Herbert Morrison – 1929 Parliamentary Answer on Open Doors on the London Underground

    The Parliamentary answer given by Herbert Morrison, the then Minister for Transport, in the House of Commons on 17 July 1929.

    Mr. GOSSLING asked the Minister of Transport if he is aware that trains upon the Underground Railway frequently run with the doors open; and if he will take immediate steps to remedy this danger by making it compulsory for the railway company to install guards upon these trains or any other means to safeguard the travelling public?

    Mr. HERBERT MORRISON I believe it occasionally happens that railway carriage doors are left open, but my information is that the railway companies concerned already adopt measures to secure that doors left open are closed as soon as possible. If, however, the hon. Member would give me any specific information he may have of failure in this respect I will look further into the matter. I may say that so far as I have been able to ascertain no accidents from this cause are known to have occurred recently.

  • Grant Shapps – 2022 Comments on Train Drivers’ Pay

    Grant Shapps – 2022 Comments on Train Drivers’ Pay

    The comments made by Grant Shapps, the Secretary of State for Transport, on Twitter on 27 July 2022.

    Train drivers already earn almost 60k but clearly that’s not enough for ASLEF bosses, who have called more strikes designed to hurt the people they claim to stand for, and who on average earn far less. Taxpayers gave £600 p/household to the railway during Covid and deserve better.

  • Greg Smith – 2022 Speech at the Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment Debate

    Greg Smith – 2022 Speech at the Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment Debate

    The speech made by Greg Smith, the Conservative MP for Buckingham, in the House of Commons on 21 July 2022.

    It is a pleasure to follow the powerful and thoughtful contribution of my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Aaron Bell). I start by raising a number of issues on all things rail. We know that rail numbers are down by a fifth since the pandemic, and yet the Government persist in building High Speed 2, a topic on which I have spoken in opposition on multiple occasions since my election to this House. Indeed, it is good to see my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) on the Front Bench. He was with me in the Lobby the other day when we voted against HS2 going further north.

    The reality on the ground, accepting that the thing is being built, is that HS2 Ltd continues to be anything but a good neighbour. I have spoken in the Transport Committee, in this Chamber and in Westminster Hall giving countless examples of where HS2 is making people’s lives a misery. It is bringing in HGV movements through villages where they simply should not be going. It is closing roads at a moment’s notice. It is not dealing with landowners in a fair or proportionate way when it takes their land. The latest complaint to reach me over the past 24 hours is about land that HS2 has taken but done nothing with, where poisonous weeds such as ragwort are being allowed to take hold and bleed across as seed moves into land where cattle, sheep and other animals can be affected by it. HS2 has been apprised of that time and time again, and yet it has done nothing. I urge the Government to clamp down on HS2 Ltd and ensure that it becomes the good neighbour it purports to be.

    Likewise, the construction of East West Rail continues to be a nightmare for my constituents. It is the railway we want—it will bring greater connectivity to Buckinghamshire with a new station at Winslow—but its construction brings similar misery to that of High Speed 2. It looks as though East West Rail will launch with entirely diesel rolling stock, to boot. I urge the Government to reconsider that urgently and to look at hybrid options, hydrogen or a newer, greener technology. It is simply preposterous in this day and age for a new railway to be built with diesel- only stock.

    Likewise, I urge the Government to give us some clarity, because there has been some speculation in recent days that perhaps the whole of East West Rail will not be completed, and that the part that goes beyond Bletchley towards Cambridge may not be built. This House needs urgent clarity on that when we return in the autumn.

    Moving on to a planning matter, the Ministry of Justice had proposed building a mega-prison in my constituency adjacent to HMP Grendon and HMP Springhill, on land that it partially owns but that also involves the compulsory purchase of a farm. Buckinghamshire Council’s strategic sites committee wisely rejected the proposal. It was not a technical rejection at planning; the proposal in fact breached policies BE1, BE2, I2, NE1, NE4, NE5 and S1 of the local plan, as well as paragraphs 7, 8, 57, 58, 99, 105, 174, 180 and section 16 of the national planning policy framework. It was by no means a technical refusal, yet unfortunately the Ministry of Justice is seeking to appeal that and to cost taxpayers probably hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal fees. It is simply not right or fair that that project continues to hang over my constituency and the villages of Edgcott, Grendon Underwood, Steeple Claydon and others around. I urge the Government to reconsider and to pull that appeal.

  • Grant Shapps – 2022 Statement on the Transpennine Route Upgrade

    Grant Shapps – 2022 Statement on the Transpennine Route Upgrade

    The statement made by Grant Shapps, the Secretary of State for Transport, in the House of Commons on 19 July 2022.

    Today, 19 July 2022, the Government have made available £959 million of additional funding to continue to progress the delivery of the ambitious Transpennine Route Upgrade.

    This funding is a significant milestone, and another step towards upgrading the key East-West rail artery across the North of England to further this Government’s levelling up and decarbonisation objectives.

    In addition to progressing the design of aspects of the upgrade, this funding will enable further on-the-ground delivery of electrification and journey time improvement works, mostly west of Leeds. One of the first tangible benefits will be enabling electric trains to run between Manchester and Stalybridge by the middle of the decade. We are also developing scope that will enable the Transpennine Route Upgrade to become the first phase of Northern Powerhouse Rail, including plans to unlock freight flows and take thousands of lorries off our roads.

    We are also more than trebling the investment in the Transpennine Route Upgrade from £2.9 billion to between £9.0 billion and £11.5 billion. This additional investment will enable the roll out of digital signalling technology, electrification of the full route and the provision of additional tracks for commercial and freight services, giving rail users more reliable, more punctual, more comfortable and greener rail journeys.

    To date, the Government have approved over £2 billion of funding for the upgrade. The further £959 million of funding reiterates this Government’s commitment to transforming rail connectivity across the north, as part of the Integrated Rail Plan.

  • Grant Shapps – 2022 Statement on the Government’s Jet Zero Strategy

    Grant Shapps – 2022 Statement on the Government’s Jet Zero Strategy

    The statement made by Grant Shapps, the Secretary of State for Transport, in the House of Commons on 19 July 2022.

    Today I am launching the jet zero strategy—setting out this Government’s approach for achieving net zero aviation by 2050.

    It builds on the Government’s net zero strategy, as well as the transport decarbonisation plan, which outlines the commitments and actions needed to decarbonise the entire transport system.

    The jet zero strategy sets a trajectory for the sector to reach net zero by 2050—or jet zero, as we define it. Its delivery will see UK aviation emissions reduce even further than the levels called for by our climate advisors, with a pathway that should see emissions never again reach the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.

    To deliver this outcome, alongside our jet zero target we aim for domestic aviation and airports to be net zero and zero emission respectively by 2040.

    It is a strategy that will both decarbonise the sector and allow people to keep flying. Pre pandemic, aviation contributed at least £22 billion to our economy and 230,000 direct jobs across the country. It is crucial that we support the rapid development of technologies that maintain the benefits of air travel while maximising the opportunities that decarbonisation brings to the UK.

    Those opportunities include the domestic production of sustainable aviation fuels, which could support up to 5,200 jobs by 2035 and help regenerate industrial sites across the country, notably in areas outside London, such as the north-east, contributing to levelling up the UK and improving our fuel security. We have today set out a new commitment of having at least five commercial SAF plants under construction by 2025, and we have also confirmed that the Government will mandate at least 10% SAF to be blended into conventional aviation fuels by the end of the decade—one of the most ambitious targets globally.

    Bolstering that effort means investing in pioneering projects. This is why today we are also launching the advanced fuels fund with a £165 million competition, building on previous funding such as the £15 million green fuels, green skies competition, to stimulate the start-up of commercial SAF production facilities in the UK. Alongside this, we have also announced that we are progressing to the next phase of our £1 million competition to deliver the first ever net zero transatlantic flight powered by 100% SAF.

    The goal of reaching net zero aviation emissions by 2050 sets a clear objective, but meeting our ambition requires us to drive forward the multiple solutions necessary for its delivery. Therefore, our approach to implementing this strategy is founded on three key principles:

    International Leadership—this strategy restates our commitment to taking a leading role in tackling international aviation emissions through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

    Delivered in Partnership—the Government will need to work collaboratively with all partners, from the aviation industry to the public, through our pioneering jet zero council, as well as other initiatives.

    Maximising Opportunities—the jet zero transition presents unique opportunities to create new jobs, industries and technologies across the entire UK sector, decarbonise air travel, and level up the economy.

    These principles will influence our activity to make sure we pursue the right options and will guide our progress on six clear policy measures launched in the strategy today.

    We intend to improve the efficiency of our existing aviation system, from aircraft to airports and airspace. For example, we will improve fuel efficiency by 2% every year, providing a further £3.7 million in 2022-23 to support airports to modernise their airspace.

    There will be increased support for sustainable aviation fuels, by creating secure and growing UK SAF demand through a SAF mandate that will require at least 10% of jet fuel to be made from sustainable sources by 2030.

    This strategy outlines our ambition to expedite the development of zero-emission aircraft, with the aspiration of having zero-emission routes connecting places across the UK by 2030.

    We will invest in greenhouse gas removal technologies to drive decarbonisation and offset any residual emissions, and enhance the UK emissions trading scheme.

    And lastly, we will increase our understanding of the non-CO2 impacts of aviation, the effects of which remain uncertain.

    As we act in each of these areas, we will give ourselves the headroom to evolve. The Government are committed to reviewing the strategy every five years, and, if necessary, adapting our approach based on the progress we make.

    The UK is setting an example of the ambition needed to tackle climate change, and the launch of today’s plan provides a clear path to building a sustainable aviation sector for generations to come.

    The jet zero strategy will future-proof the aviation industry, securing the economic benefits of new green jobs and industries, and delivering the technologies and fuels that will keep passengers flying in a decarbonised world.