Published: Monday 07 July 2023

But we’re now finding a new, high-value role to support local transport authorities in meeting urgent Government priorities to help decarbonise the transport system and to refresh local transport plans with quantifiable carbon reductions (QCR).

This has catapulted us from delivering major infrastructure business cases, like Midlands Rail Hub, to also urgently delivering final business cases and supporting authorities in building contracts that deliver across all geographies and local policies that can help tackle local emissions.

We use estimates of carbon emissions to help us prioritise our support, which gives us a clear reason to focus on road transport. In the local electric vehicle infrastructure funding (LEVI) pilot, we helped form a successful Midlands consortium led by Lincolnshire and including Stoke-on-Trent, Herefordshire, Leicestershire and Rutland.

We are now centrally supporting two further consortiums using more than 50% of the whole Midlands £66m LEVI funding. At the time of writing this blog we have the largest consortium, an approach promoted by Government to find the optimal public/private partnership.

The consortiums will require contracts that cover large geographies and last 15 years or more. But they are expected to attract some 80% private funding and ensure that public charge-points are available for all.

Contracts for the first consortium will need to be ready for November 2024 and we’re trying to motivate suppliers for societal benefit as well as profit.  What we are learning is how strong the region is when pushed to work together at pace.

Decarbonising road haulage requires a longer-term collaboration across regions to understand the choice of mode and fuel type for moving heavier goods over long distances.

We’re taking a ‘telescopic view’ of Great Britain to understand these likely choices, modelling 2050 scenarios of annual tonnage for road, rail, sea & air.  We’re also taking a ‘microscopic view’ across regions to find areas with good access to energy, land and skills and considering fuel availability, trade routes and vehicle fleets and strategic fit and scalability.

When we combine these different views, we think we need a national network of refuelling, recharging and modal interchange hubs, with:    

• ​Super Hubs, for more long-haul and of national importance.
• Strategic Hubs, for shorter-haul and important for connecting the region and its ports, whether air, sea or free.
• Local Hubs, which are the key distribution hubs adjacent to towns and cities, for example Amazon warehouse clusters.

It will probably be of little surprise that the top-priority locations for these interlaced energy and transport activities are focused around the two Midlands airports. As such we are working with Midlands Net Zero Hub and Leicestershire LEP on the ‘East Midlands Energy Super Hub’ project, including the Airport and Freeport zone.

The Department for Transport has also asked us to support the local transport authorities in delivering QCRs as part of a 2024 local transport plan update. For this we’re work across all seven regions to deliver the Decarbonisation Policy Playbook. This will help authorities find the best policies that fit local geographies and communities, and then allow them to understand likely carbon reductions within their network.

These three work programmes represent the initial phases of our vision-led pathways as we plan for a greener, fairer and stronger future. They will support local, regional and national efforts to decarbonise the transport system and play a major part in decarbonising the UK economy.

Richard Bradley is Head of Strategy at Midlands Connect.