A new deal for transport? - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 119

8 A new deal for transport?

New Labour 1997-2004

8.1 Introduction
A New Deal for Transport was the title of the White Paper published in 1998 by the
incoming Labour Government just over a year after taking office. It was the first of
its kind for over twenty years and was intended to provide the policy framework for
a series of more detailed proposals to be brought forward subsequently. Section 8.2
explains the context in which it was published and 8.3 summarises its content.
In practice the White Paper was not quite such a new deal as some had hoped
for and even so its aspirations quickly began to unravel. Transport 2010 - The Ten
Year Plan published in 2000 was a much enhanced investment programme intended
to demonstrate the Government's commitment to improved transport (8.5). But
two extraordinary events later the same year - the road hauliers' campaign against
fuel duty increases and the Hatfield rail crash and its aftermath - had the effect of
undermining two of the central components of the Government's strategy (8.6). Local
authorities' unwillingness to respond to new powers for urban road user charging was
a further damaging blow (8.7).
The political damage from the collapse of the Government's intended strategy was
such that it decided to publish a second White Paper The Future of Transport in 2004
to 'clear the decks' before the 2005 General Election (8.9). The document itself was
little more than window-dressing but it marked the transition to an era when transport
policy was painstakingly reconstructed. The initiatives taken after 2004 are described
in the final part of the topic since they form core elements of contemporary policy.
Interspersed between the sections on transport policy are separate sections on
changes in governance and development planning during the period (8.4 and 8.8).

8.2 'A consensus for radical change'
It is tempting to regard any change of Government as signifying an important break in
the evolution of policy, especially after a period as long as 18 years. In this case not only
the change in political control, but the manner of the change - an electoral landslide,
a young Prime Minister (Tony Blair), and a fresh administration untarnished by the
'sleaze' and internal wranglings of the Major years - created an air of national euphoria
and high expectation.
The appointment of someone as senior as the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott
to head a new combined Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions
(DETR) added to the sense of promise in these particular areas. In practice much of