The Secretary of State for Transport (Grant Shapps)

In the coming years, our ambitious and accelerating plans to decarbonise all road traffic will transform roads’ impact on greenhouse gas emissions. We have always said, however, that we must ensure the road network meets today’s demands, not those of the past. In the last 18 months, fundamental changes have occurred in commuting, shopping and business travel, which before the pandemic made up 30% of all road journeys by distance, and a much higher proportion at the times and places of greatest pressure.

The current national policy statement (NPS) on national networks, the Government statement of strategic planning policy for major road and rail schemes, was written in 2014, before the Government legal commitment to net zero, the 10-point plan for a green industrial revolution, the new sixth carbon budget and most directly the new, more ambitious policies outlined in the transport decarbonisation plan.

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