Lancaster MP welcomes Labour plans to renationalise railways

The party has met this week in Liverpool for its annual conference and has focused on ‘rebuilding Britain from the ground up’ with growth driven by investing in ‘all people and all places’.

“After the body blow of a budget from the Conservatives last week, it’s critical we offer people hope for a better future,” said Ms Smith.

“It’s crazy that the Conservatives don’t want the state to own its own railways – but they’re quite happy for other states like France, Germany and Holland to own our railways and to profit from British commuters. It’s time we took back control and put the profit from public transport into improving the services and improving pay and conditions for staff.”

Labour has also committed to creating a fossil fuel free electricity system by 2030, making the UK a clean energy superpower, exporting clean power to the rest of the world.

This would save UK households £93 billion in energy bills over the rest of this decade. To achieve this, they’ll quadruple offshore wind with an ambition of 55GW by 2030, accelerate the pioneering floating offshore wind technology by fast-tracking at least 5GW of capacity, triple solar power to over 50GW and double our onshore wind capacity to 35GW.

In addition they will ensure the long-term security of nuclear power, invest in carbon capture and storage and hydrogen to ensure that there is sufficient zero-emission back-up power and storage for extended periods without wind or sun, while maintaining a strategic reserve of backup gas power stations to guarantee security of supply, double down on green hydrogen, with 10GW of production - twice the government’s target - for use particularly in flexible power generation, storage, and industrial processes like green steel; unleash marine and tidal power, reform planning laws and build out the grid and manage existing oil and gas wells sustainably over the coming decades.

“I’m also pleased to confirm that under a Labour government, fracking would be banned – not just for a few months, but forever,” confirmed Ms Smith. “Labour is totally opposed to a practice known to cause such harm to the planet and our environment.”

Labour says its fully costed plans will support the creation of over 200,000 direct jobs and up to 260,000-300,000 indirect jobs and will be funded by a National Wealth Fund, putting an initial £8 billion into a central pot to build British industry.

“This means that when public money is spent on these projects, the British people will own a share of that wealth, and benefit from the returns on those investments,” explained Ms Smith.

“Working with business we aim to build eight new battery factories, six clean steel plants, nine renewable-ready ports, the world’s largest hydrogen electrolyser plant and net-zero industrial clusters in every region of the country.”

"We will build British industries in every region of the UK – with the plan for offshore wind alone injecting investment into nine clusters: the north west, Forth and Tay, Humber, East Anglia, Solent, and North Wales, Belfast Harbour, north east Scotland, north east England and the Celtic Sea – and the National Wealth Fund is based on a simple idea: that it is time to invest and build the wealth for this country, so we can lead the world in industries such as hydrogen, electric vehicles, green steel and offshore wind.”

Ms Smith went on to say that it was time for a rebalancing of power - with wealth, security and opportunity spread across the whole country.

She said: “It’s about the real wealth creators – the women and men who work in our shops, who drive our buses, who deliver our mail, who produce our food, who care for our families and teach our children – who make sure we have what we need to live every day of our lives.

"Those people are the foundation of our economy and by working together we can, and we must transform this country so we all prosper.”