Transport, planning and energy reform have leading roles in King's Speech

Labour government sets out legislative programme including renationalising rail, bus franchises and empowering metro mayors

King Charles III in Parliament

Improving public transport, liberalising the planning regime and devolving powers to regional leaders are key elements of the new Labour government’s strategy to improve living standards through economic growth.

Labour swept to power with a landslide on 4 July and set out a legislative programme in the King’s Speech delivered on 17 July. The speech set out almost 40 pieces of legislation that focus on growing the economy through improving transport, creating jobs, building houses, generating cleaner energy and delivering infrastructure without prolonged delays.  

Prime minister Keir Starmer said: “Now is the time to take the brakes off Britain. For too long people have been held back, their paths determined by where they came from – not their talents and hard work. I am determined to create wealth for people up and down the country. It is the only way our country can progress, and my government is focussed on supporting that aspiration.”

Transport and highways

The Department for Transport is now led by Louise Haigh, who will be steering bringing rail services into public ownership once their contracts expire or if operators fail to deliver on their commitments. The new government believes this approach will avoid taxpayers picking up the burden of paying compensation to train operators for taking services into public ownership.

Labour argues that transferring operations to the public sector will save the taxpayer millions of pounds currently paid out in fees to private operators each year. It will also end the fragmentation of the railways, establishing a more reliable rail service.

The government will also introduce legislation to establish a new public body, Great British Railways (GBR) which will be tasked with delivering simplified fares, discounts, and ticket types. Once established, the new body will work to ensure that innovations such as automatic compensation, digital pay-as-you-go and digital season ticketing are rolled out across the network.

The King’s Speech also featured a Better Buses Bill that gives metro mayors powers to franchise local bus services and which lifts the restriction on new publicly owned bus operators.

While transport has been identified as a way of boosting the economy, chancellor Rachel Reeves has set about cutting spending on some major infrastructure projects. The £1.7bn A303 Stonehenge tunnel and two other road and rail schemes have already been scrapped, and other transport projects will be reviewed.

Planning and infrastructure

Building more housing and infrastructure is central to the government’s mission to strengthen economic growth, which will be overseen by deputy prime minister Angela Rayner. A Planning Reform Bill will seek to speed up and streamline the planning process to build more homes of all tenures and accelerate the delivery of major infrastructure projects. The government will also introduce a bill to ensure a new National Wealth Fund worth £7.3bn will make “transformational investments’ across the UK.

Empowering local communities

As part of the government’s plans to empower local leaders to deliver change for their communities, the King’s Speech unveiled the English Devolution Bill. This will transfer power into local communities and recognising the role of local leaders by establishing local growth plans that bring economic benefit to communities and households across the country.

Energy and decarbonisation

Energy secretary Ed Milliband will be overseeing a new bill will help set up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean-power company. The government will introduce legislation that unlocks investment in energy infrastructure, supports sustainable aviation fuel production and strengthens the water regulator’s powers.

To read the full King’s Speech click here

The speech's contents will now be the subject of five days of debate by MPs.

The Bills

Labour’s legislative programme

• Planning and Infrastructure Bill: A flagship manifesto pledge to streamline the process for approving critical infrastructure and overhaul rules on the compulsory purchase of land.
• Great British Energy Bill: Great British Energy will be a state-owned energy investment and generation company.
• English Devolution Bill: More powers will be transfered elected mayors in combined council areas.
• Better Buses Bill: Reform the bus system will deliver new powers for local leaders to franchise bus services and lift the restriction on the creation of new publicly owned bus operators.
• Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill: The government will renationalise nearly all passenger rail servicesas existing contracts expire. Great British Railways, a new body to oversee track and trains, will established by a separate Railways Bill.
• High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill: This existing hybrid bill was intended to enable the now-cancelled northern leg of the HS2 high-speed rail link, but will be used to bring in powers to build new rail infrastructure in northern England.
• National Wealth Fund Bill: A new fund that will invest £7.3bn over five years in infrastructure and green industry.
• Sustainable Aviation Fuel (revenue support mechanism) Bill: Legislation to support investment in UK plants to make lower-emission aviation fuels.
• Water (Special Measures) Bill: The heads of private water companies will be made personally liable for lawbreaking and gives water regulator powers to ban bonuses.
• Crime and Policing Bill: Police will receive powers to tackle anti-social behaviour, and assaults shopworkers will become a specific crime.
• Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill: Published in draft form by the Conservatives, this bill will require large venues to put in place procedures to deal with terrorism threats (Otherwise known as ‘Martyn’s Law’ after Martyn Hett who was among those killed in the Manchester Arena attack).
• Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bill: Offenders will be required to attend sentencing hearings and child sex offenders will lose their parental rights.
• Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill: A new Border Security Command will enable police to use counter-terrorism powers to tackle organised crime gangs smuggling migrants into the UK.
• Employment Rights Bill: The exploitative use of zero-hours contracts will be banned.
• Race Equality Bill: The right to make equal pay claims under the Equality Act will be extended to ethnic minority workers and disabled people.
• Renters’ Rights Bill: ‘No fault evictions’ will be banned and building safety rules will be extended to social tenants to private renters.
• Draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill: Legislation to curb ground rent for existing leaseholders, and ban forfeiture over small unpaid debts.
• Tobacco and Vapes Bill: Announced by previous PM Rishi Sunak will introduce a gradual ban on smoking.
• Mental Health Bill: The rules on sectioning people will be tightened and rules on care for people with learning difficulties modernised.
• Children's Wellbeing Bill: Councils in England will be required to maintain registers of children not educated full-time in school, and primary schools in England will have to deliver breakfast clubs.
• Skills England Bill: An arms-length body will be set up to boost and regionalise training.
• Digital Information and Smart Data Bill: People will be able to use digital ID to buy age-restricted products and for things like pre-employment checks. It will also  develop a National Underground Asset Register and set up Smart Data schemes.
• Cyber Security and Resilience Bill: New rules designed to protect critical infrastructure from online attack.
• Armed Forces Commissioner Bill: A commissioner for the forces.
• Northern Ireland Legacy legislation: A plan to replace the Northern Ireland Legacy Act, which has been criticised for measures such as conditional amnesties for Troubles-era crimes.
• Budget Responsibility Bill: Legislation ensuring future budgets and fiscal come with an independent assessment by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
• House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill: Plans to remove hereditary peers from Parliament.
• Bank Resolution (Recapitalisation) Bill: A bill about what happens if a bank fails, including measures to ensure taxpayers do not bear the costs.
• Pension Schemes Bill: New rules and requirements for private-sector pension schemes.
• Draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill: Legislation setting out a revamped regulator for the auditing sector.
• Arbitration Bill: Legislation aims to modernise dispute resolution systems.
• Product Safety and Metrology Bill: A bill designed to increase economic efficiency and growth.
• ‘Hillsborough Law’: Legislation to introduce a legal duty of candour on public servants and authorities in an attempt to precent Hillsborough-style cover-ups.
• Football Governance Bill: In place before the election, this legislation will set up a set up a regulator for the top five divisions of men’s football.
• Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill: This bill will set out equal pay rights for people from minority ethnic groups and disabled people.
• Draft Conversion Practices Bill: Legislation to ban conversion practices, including those connected to gender.
• The Crown Estate Bill: Moves to modernise the Crown Estate, the semi-detached property management arms of the state.
• Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and International Committee of the Red Cross (Status) Bill
• Holocaust Memorial Bill: Legislation supporting the establishment of a national memorial and learning centre.