The Department for Transport is a huge brief: aviation; rail; roads; and shipping.
The responsibilities are extensive too. These include: an overview of all policies; strategy; national networks (strategic road network and rail); environment and climate change; cleaner fuels and vehicles; and crossrail.
And yet, the department has problems hanging onto its department heads. We are now onto the 13th Transport Secretary – Lord Adonis replaces Geoff Hoon who has just resigned – in 20 years.
Surely that can’t be right. Transport is too crucial to this country. And yet just as one Secretary gets to grips with the brief – off they go. And that’s the case with Mr Hoon as the cabinet of Prime Minister Gordon Brown swiftly disintegrates.
That’s certainly the view of AA president Edmund King. “We believe that Geoff Hoon had got to grips with the transport brief very quickly and was doing a good job.Transport is an essential and complex brief but in the last two decades no one has stayed long enough to implement coherent policies. Geoff Hoon showed realism in understanding the importance of road transport and road safety and will be missed.”
John Lewis, chief executive of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA) was rather more scathing: “Like the electric cars the government is so keen to see on Britain’s roads, Labour’s transport appointments just don’t have the mileage for the job. It is disheartening to see yet another personnel change at the head of the Department for Transport, but we can at least be thankful that someone has been promoted from within. We hope that the obvious enthusiasm Lord Adonis has for the rail industry will be widened to include all his new transport responsibilities. The UK’s beleaguered road users deserve nothing less.”
Quite right. Business depends on our roads – roads that have a coherent strategy to make them work efficiently. Unlike this present government.
Revolving doors at the Department for Transport
