One of this government’s five missions when entering power was to make Britain a clean energy superpower. Clean energy – including the industries and supply chains that will deliver net-zero by 2050 – is seen as central to the UK’s industrial future.
The bus industry sits at the forefront of this transition. Ministers call buses the backbone of a sustainable transport system: cutting congestion, lowering emissions, and providing affordable mobility. But UK bus manufacturing, which should be a pillar of this green future, is under strain.
That became clear in the summer, when Alexander Dennis, the UK’s largest bus builder, announced that it might close factories in Falkirk and Larbert and move all production to Scarborough, threatening 400 jobs. A £4 million intervention from the Scottish Government has helped to provide a reprieve.
This episode underlines a deeper issue: Britain’s policy framework for decarbonising buses is not providing a stable pipeline of work. Without that, we risk losing manufacturing capacity to overseas competitors just when we need it most.
The UK has pledged to end the sale of new non-zero-emission buses by 2032. That should create long-term demand for thousands of battery-electric or hydrogen vehicles. Yet in practice, orders are irregular.
Operators and local authorities depend on sporadic government funding rounds – the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas scheme, the Scottish Zero Emission Bus challenge fund or one-off pots of “levelling up” cash – rather than predictable, multi-year support. That has created a boom-and-bust cycle: bursts of production followed by fallow periods.
Such volatility is difficult to manage. Manufacturers need steady confidence to invest in production lines for new technologies. Skilled workers and supply chains cannot be switched off and on at will. Without investment certainty, the UK may end up importing most of its zero-emission buses instead of building them here.
Parallel disruption is unfolding in the renewable fuels sector. Zemo Partnership has long supported sustainability-accredited renewable fuels as a near- and medium-term solution for coaches, buses and trucks while electric technologies mature.
Yet the removal of tariffs on US ethanol and other factors have hit the UK’s domestic biofuels industry hard, prompting closures of plants operated by Argent Energy, Greenergy, and Vivergo Fuels.
Zemo recently collaborated with WSP on a Department for Transport study into higher biocontent fuels, which can deliver real emissions benefits. But, as with buses, it is crucial that as much of this fuel as possible is produced and refined locally, supporting UK jobs and resilience.
The challenges in both vehicle manufacturing and fuels are complex, but one lesson is clear: Britain needs a stable, long-term policy environment.
A multi-year funding framework would allow operators and local authorities to plan purchases with confidence, helping manufacturers to sustain production lines and supply chains. Linking public funding more explicitly to UK-based supply chains would further help to anchor jobs and investment.
The Alexander Dennis situation may have been defused, but it was a warning shot. If the UK wants a just and resilient net-zero transition, it cannot afford to let our bus manufacturing base erode.
Buses are not just vehicles; they are part of a wider ecosystem of workers, communities and industries. Protecting that ecosystem must be central to our efforts to put cleaner vehicles on the road.
