Bus industry urges zero-emission goal

Manufacturers in the United Kingdom claim the government has failed to deliver on a pre-COVID-19 pandemic pledge to invest in 4,000 new zero-emission British-built buses.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the promise in February 2020 when he was promoting green policies that he said would improve people's lives and benefit UK industry, The Guardian reported.

Johnson said that the new buses would be in service by 2025, but stakeholders claim this target will not be achievable without the necessary funds in place and have cast doubt on the government's wider commitment to decarbonization goals.

Campaigners and politicians say 4 billion pounds ($5.37 billion) is required to produce the buses, but just 320 million pounds was committed by the Treasury in the last spending review in the fall.

The chief of the UK's biggest bus producer and the world's largest manufacturer of double-decker buses, Alexander Dennis, told The Guardian that time was running out to meet the deadline.

"If everything is left until the last minute, the danger is we have to look to overseas companies for quicker and cheaper options when the intention was that they would be British-made," said Paul Davies.

Campaigners say the government needs to act quickly to give British business the boost it needs.

Paul Tuohy, chief executive of Campaign for Better Transport, said: "Government must step in to offer more support to the industry in the long-term and do more to boost passenger numbers in the short-term to give operators the confidence to invest."

Labour Party member of Parliament and shadow buses minister Sam Tarry was quoted in The Guardian as saying that the government had failed to deliver on the bus investment promise.

"British manufacturers tell me they haven't received a single order. We're now more than two years on from when the prime minister promised there'd be 4,000 zero-emission buses on our roads by 2025.

"They're clearly well off target and this is yet another sign that they're not serious about their commitment to decarbonize our economy and meet our net zero target by 2050, and they're not serious about supporting British manufacturing and jobs."

In 2020, Johnson called on countries to follow the UK in pledging to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. But with the cost of living soaring, a vocal group of Conservative Party politicians have been arguing that the government should rethink how these targets can be achieved, noted the BBC.

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said the government remained committed to "supporting the introduction of 4,000 zero-emission buses and achieving an all zero-emission bus fleet".