Transport Action Network set to contest government’s national policy for roads infrastructure

The NNNPS provides planning guidance for road schemes. TAN is set to argue that the new policy framework fails to properly support the UK’s 2050 net zero target, and that it will hinder the UK’s efforts to shift towards active travel and public transport.  

The campaign group also stresses the importance of its claim after the government announced that it would be relaxing its rules on the move to pure electric vehicles. TAN says it is now more important than ever to give people alternatives to driving.  

In 2020, TAN wrote to the Secretary of State for Transport asking it to review the NNNPS in light of the UK’s target to reach net zero by 2050 being made law in 2019.  

Following campaigning from TAN, including two judicial reviews, the government announced in July 2021 that it would be reviewing the NNNPS. This review was justified by its publication in the same month of the Transport Decarbonisation Plan (TDP), which outlined more ambitious climate  policies for the sector, including accelerating modal shift to public transport and active travel, which was its top strategic priority.  

A consultation into the NNNPS began in March 2023, and in October 2023 an inquiry by the House of Commons’ Transport Committee concluded that the new NNNPS draft would require amendments to bring it in line with net zero targets. 

However, these recommendations were rejected by the government at the time.  

Instead, the new draft said that carbon impacts of road schemes should be ignored by decision-makers unless the emissions caused were significant enough to risk breaching the UK’s entire carbon budget. TAN says that such an unrealistically high threshold means that virtually no road scheme would be caught by it. 

TAN argues that the test fails to provide any safeguard whatsoever, and returns the NNNPS’s carbon emissions test to pre-2015 standards, before net zero targets were first adopted.  

In July 2024, TAN applied for a judicial review of the new NNNPS, with permission granted in December on the following grounds:

• Ministers wrongfully ignored consultation responses about shifting to public transport and active travel (walking/cycling), despite the clear commitment to them in the TDP, which the update to the NNNPS was supposedly justified on.  
• Ministers were wrong to rely on the effective delivery of the TDP, primarily vehicle electrification,to offset the climate impacts of road-building policy.  
• Ministers should have been required to re-consult after they made material amendments to the consultation draft, with these amendments watering down the carbon emissions test and removing references to local and regional carbon budgets.  

Chris Todd, Transport Action Network founder and director, said: 

“In 2021 the Department for Transport accepted the need for using cars less. With electric vehicle (EV) rules being watered down this week, it's more important than ever to give people cheaper, convenient alternatives to driving rather than pushing on with a costly high carbon roads programme.” 

Leigh Day solicitor Rowan Smith, who represents TAN, said: 

"Our client, Transport Action Network, is focused on accelerating the move away from unsustainable levels of dependence on car travel, towards more climate-friendly alternatives. We look forward to arguing on TAN’s behalf that, in reviewing the NNNPS, the Secretary of State for Transport unlawfully ignored calls from the public to turn away from road-building towards greater investment in public transport and active travel, and failed to consult fairly on planning rules governing the decarbonisation of the road network.”