Tories pledge to ‘end blanket 20mph schemes’ in Plan for Drivers

Speed limits “widely ignored” by drivers would be raised under a Conservative government, the party has said.

The pledge to review 20mph limits is part of a six-point Plan for Drivers announced by the Tories to “get Britain moving again”.

This includes a commitment to “end blanket 20mph schemes”, which have been imposed by “Labour and their councils” across “entire towns and cities with no meaningful evidence base”.

Schemes to cut speed limits to 20mph have become increasingly common in the UK and other parts of Europe in recent years as part of efforts to reduce crashes and injuries.

Wales has 20mph as the default speed limit in built-up areas, while the Scottish Government committed to implementing the limit on “those roads where it is appropriate to do so”.

Evidence from Wales suggests the 20mph policy has had a measurable impact on road safety.

Welsh Government data shows around 100 fewer people were killed or seriously injured on 20mph and 30mph roads in the first year after the change.

Overall casualties on these roads have fallen by around 25–28%, with some analyses pointing to more than 600 fewer injuries in a year.

More recent Senedd research also found casualties on 20mph and 30mph roads dropped by around 23–24%, a sharper decline than seen in England or Scotland over the same period.

Average vehicle speeds have reduced too, with more than half of drivers now travelling at or below 24mph, helping to lower both collision risk and severity.

Taken together, the data indicates fewer collisions, fewer serious injuries and safer streets, although longer-term trends are still being monitored.

Some 62 out of 153 local authorities in England have “adopted a policy similar to Scotland”, according to charity Living Streets.

Tom Tom

Widespread 20mph speed limits have been blamed by location technology company TomTom for London being the world’s slowest capital city to drive in.

Reducing speed limits from 30mph to 20mph has been one of Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan’s key transport policies, with more than half of the capital’s roads now at the lower level.

The Conservative Party’s Plan for Drivers stated: “Conservatives will end the blanket use of 20mph limits.

“Existing schemes will be reviewed, with 30mph limits restored where blanket approaches are widely ignored.”

The party pledged to “restore a common sense approach” to bus lanes, through allowing motorbikes to use them by default and preventing councils from making them active at all times without written permission from a government minister.

Other commitments in the plan include:

– Maintaining the 5p-per-litre fuel duty cut introduced under the previous Conservative government in March 2022.

– Scrapping the 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.

– Clearing the driving test backlog by providing up to 200,000 additional tests per year.

– Launching a new national potholes taskforce to deploy specialist repair units using “the most effective technology on the market”.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said: “Labour only see drivers as a cash cow. Hiking fuel duty in a global oil crisis. 20mph roads. Banning petrol and diesel cars. Keir Starmer wants to make drivers’ lives as difficult as possible.

“The Conservatives are different. We understand that hardworking families and businesses need their cars and we have a plan to ensure we get Britain moving again.”

Shadow transport secretary Richard Holden said: “Under Labour, you wait six months to take your test, pay through the nose at the pump, crawl through blanket 20mph zones the council never asked anyone about, then hit a pothole that writes off your suspension. Conservatives have the plan to fix it.”

The Department for Transport was approached for a comment.