Ministers are considering restrictions on councils’ ability to impose 20mph speed limits as part of a new shift against green policies and traffic schemes, a stance condemned by safety and travel groups as shortsighted and divisive.
The Guardian has been told the push against what Rishi Sunak has termed “anti-motorist” policies could be extended to find ways to stop local authorities taking other measures, such as installing bus gates, that have been used routinely for decades.
The prime minister has already ordered a review of low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) in the wake of this month’s Uxbridge byelection, where an unexpected narrow Conservative win was helped by concerns about the Labour mayor Sadiq Khan’s expansion of London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez).
It is now understood that other plans are being considered which could limit councils’ powers to impose 20mph zones and other measures.
While Sunak ordered the review into LTNs, No 10 said the prime minister had no plans to act on 20mph limits, something that could prove notably more contentious. The Department for Transport (DfT) said it could not comment.
The safety benefits of 20mph limits to pedestrians and cyclists have led to their use on many urban streets, with the Labour-run Welsh government announcing last year that it would become the default limit for built-up areas.
The charity RoadPeace, which helps people who have been bereaved or seriously hurt in traffic crashes, said it would urge ministers to maintain support for the limit. Nick Simmons, its chief executive, said: “Our members are only too familiar with the devastating effect that speed has on road crashes and would be extremely disappointed to see roads made demonstrably less safe.”
Such a move would mark another recent shift away from environmental priorities since the Uxbridge result, with the prime minister saying last week he could delay or ditch policies that imposed a direct cost on households, such as the move to replace domestic boilers with heat pumps.
In a tweet on Sunday picturing the prime minister behind the wheel of Margaret Thatcher’s old Rover, Sunak was explicit in his attempt to create a political wedge issue, calling LTNs “anti-car schemes”.
It came after an interview with the Sunday Telegraph in which Sunak labelled Labour as anti-driver and presented himself by contrast as someone who was on the side of voters “in supporting them to use their cars to do all the things that matter to them”.
Such an approach brings political risks, with research and polling suggesting that LTNs, which promote walking and cycling by filtering local streets so motor vehicles can access them but not as cut-throughs, are generally effective and popular.
A fairly routine approach to traffic management that has been used for decades, LTNs have become something of a culture war issue in parts of the media since Boris Johnson’s government rebranded them amid a push to build more of them during the Covid pandemic.
Ministers would face legal and logistical hurdles if they were to impose controls on local traffic schemes. Councils can build LTNs under their own powers, granted under the 1984 Road Traffic Regulation Act, meaning that an absolute block on them would most probably require new legislation – a high bar for a largely niche issue that directly affects very few voters.
The DfT, ordered by Sunak to carry out the review, does not even have a definition of what constitutes an LTN. While the DfT has said it will no longer fund new ones, similar plans have been supported subsequently but under different names such as “traffic management schemes”.
One councillor who has overseen the installation of LTNs called the DfT review “entirely performative, with no chance of changing anything”. Another called it “centralisation gone mad”.
No 10 and the DfT declined to give any details of the review’s scope or process, saying these would be “set out in due course”. One source said the plan had been sprung on the department with minimal warning and virtually no guidance on how it should work.
It is unknown whether the plan is to seek the removal of all LTNs, even those that have been in place for long periods, or just those installed since 2020, when Johnson’s government provided £200m for more to be created.
Louise Haigh, the shadow transport secretary, said it was “pure hypocrisy” for a Tory government to condemn a policy the party had introduced, and she condemned meddling in local decision-making.
“Measures to improve road safety around schools and in residential streets are often demanded by local communities themselves,” she said. “That’s why these are decisions for local authorities and must be done with proper consultation and taking onboard the concerns of communities.”
With the Conservatives consistently trailing Labour by 20-plus points in polls, No 10 has indicated that Sunak will take a more personal and aggressive campaigning stance. He is under pressure after the Uxbridge result to roll back on green and net zero policies, which has created alarm among environmental groups.
On Sunday, a group of 43 Tory MPs and peers who are sceptical about the government’s net zero targets wrote to Sunak asking him to delay the 2030 timetable for ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, something he again ruled out in the interview with the Sunday Telegraph.
Sunak is also pushing back against Labour’s policy of banning any new North Sea gas and oil projects. On Monday he is due to visit Aberdeenshire to announce funding for a new carbon-capture project in Scotland.
