{"id":323838,"date":"2025-11-27T17:59:50","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T07:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=67636"},"modified":"2025-11-27T17:59:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T07:59:50","slug":"uk-budget-freight-is-overlooked-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=323838","title":{"rendered":"UK Budget: freight is overlooked \u2026 again"},"content":{"rendered":"

The value of rail freight was conspicuous by its absence in Wednesday\u2019s UK Budget. The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, delivered her second Budget to the British Parliament (on Wednesday, 26 November). It will certainly be remembered for leaks and taxes, rather than trains and freight. There were only a few words relevant to the sector – none of them directly aimed at improving the lot of freight operators.<\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Some urban rail regeneration and a continuation of existing projects. Vote-catching projects were reannounced. One of them – a passenger fare freeze – was so \u2018oven-ready\u2019 it was still hot from the joint announcement with the Transport Secretary on Sunday. The real impact for rail was secondary, insofar as the measures chosen by the Chancellor will affect the businesses that provide rail with its revenue. If there is anything for the freight sector, it is certainly still down the line.<\/p>\n

Rail freight gets the usual prominence: none<\/h2>\n

The rail fares freeze figured high in the Chancellor\u2019s hour-long speech, but that measure was already on the statute book – as reported previously by our sister service RailTech.com.<\/a> That earlier announcement might have been made as a softener to the Budget\u2019s position of a tax on electric cars. Neither move was aimed at freight operations (not forgetting that containers don\u2019t vote, voters do).<\/p>\n

\"Network
Actual people work in the rail industry as well \u2013 that might be the sentiment of Darren Caplan (twelfth from front, probably). Image: \u00a9 Network Rail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s Budget contained limited new measures affecting the railway industry and rail businesses,\u201d understated Darren Caplan, the Chief Executive of the Railway Industry Association (RIA), which represents the sector\u2019s supply chain. \u201cOur members \u2013 many of whom have experienced difficult times this year commercially \u2013 will welcome the Government\u2019s recognition of the value of rail investment to boosting the UK\u2019s growth and productivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Office for Budget Irresponsibility<\/h2>\n

Anticipation of the Chancellor\u2019s speech had already impacted on every aspect of the economy. Uncertainty has led recruiters to refrain from recruiting, businesses to hold off from investing, and consumers to refrain from spending. There was some good news for rail, even if it wasn\u2019t actually new news for rail. \u201cThe government is committed to improving infrastructure and rail connectivity across the North of England, including the \u00a311\u00a0billion [\u20ac12.4bn] Transpennine Route Upgrade<\/a> currently being delivered,\u201d said Reeves\u2019s Budget statement.<\/p>\n

\"With
With Leeds city centre on the horizon, engineers work on Transpennine tracks in the foreground. Image: \u00a9 Network Rail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There had been much leaking of the Budget measures, but that turned into a flood on Wednesday morning. In an unprecedented breach of protocol, the government\u2019s own watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, accidentally published its detailed critique of the entire Budget in the hour before Rachel Reeves delivered her speech. This error could become a far more serious matter. If this seems trivial for the rail and logistics sectors, be aware that British governments have fallen for far lesser breaches. A new government may well have a very different attitude to trade and industrial development.<\/p>\n

Give fewer leaks and more clarity, please<\/h2>\n

Optimist and perennial chief executive of the RIA, Darren Caplan, concluded on an upbeat note. \u201cWe would like to have seen in this Budget more of the government\u2019s plans to encourage innovative funding models in rail,\u201d he said. \u201cWhether private or \u2018third party\u2019 investment, more direction on its long-term strategy for rail, we urge the Government to give more clarity on these issues, to both boost jobs, GVA and Treasury revenues to the benefit of UK plc, and also to ensure the rail supply sector can play its part to efficiently and cost-effectively deliver world-class UK transport infrastructure in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost nothing announced in the Budget will take effect until the next financial year (2026\/2027) or beyond. That\u2019s a necessary delay since the Budget speech is merely the start of the parliamentary process. However, that is unlikely to mean anything more than a formality, not least because the government holds a very large majority in the parliament.<\/p>\n

Rachel Reeves\u2019s job may not be on the line over the general disappointment about the tax burden, now at an all-time high of 38% of GDP. That figure was already known – it was leaked in the Office for Budget Responsibility\u2019s critique. If there is a job on the line right now, it\u2019s that organisation\u2019s chief executive. \u201cRichard Hughes – it\u2019s someone called Rachel on the phone for you\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The value of rail freight was conspicuous by its absence in Wednesday\u2019s UK Budget. The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, delivered her second Budget to the British\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18895,336,13990,78,47,2536,115,85,18896],"tags":[12634],"class_list":["post-323838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-darren-caplan","category-policy","category-rachel-reeves","category-rail-freight","category-rail-news","category-railway-industry-association","category-transpennine-route-upgrade","category-uk","category-uk-budget","tag-railfreight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323838"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":324682,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323838\/revisions\/324682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}