Paul Hodgins is the chief executive of Ginger Shared Transport and a former Leader of Richmond Council
There is a large and growing chorus that nothing is getting done in Government. Our Government is causing the UK to fall further and further behind Europe, America, and China.
For or against Brexit, the promise was that the country would get nimbler, increasing innovation and entrepreneurialism. Yet for too many entrepreneurs and modernising industries, we are seeing a lot of words, a few over-hyped small wins – but more often No. 10 and the Government tying the hands of British businesses, choking them off or driving them to relocate.
As an active member of the party for over 25 years, a local councillor for over 16 years, and one of many entrepreneurs the party says it wants to foster, I am stunned we are here.
Small, visible, real-life examples matter in politics. Any politician can talk about generalities. If not translated into real-life action, it is just waffle.
E-scooters first started appearing in their current form on our streets over five years ago. Since then, over a million private e-scooters have been sold in Britain. In 2020, the Government belatedly allowed a number of very limited one-year pilots for shared e-scooters (they were already well used in most other countries) before setting the laws of legal use. The DfT published their findings over a year ago.
Three years and millions of pounds of private investment later, the rest of Europe moved forward, attracting investment in new mobility and developing their industries. Ireland, the last holdout besides the UK, is now progressing. Even Gibraltar and the Isle of Man, which typically follow the DfT, could wait no longer. Yet in the UK, embarrassingly, the “pilots” continue on with no timeline, no change, and no end in sight, even though the conclusion has already been reached. Over five years after appearing, No. 10 continues to prevent the DfT from setting the rules on private e-scooters.
So we have a million illegal vehicles on the road and a Conservative Government hiding from the issue, knowingly damaging British companies most.
The problem of these floating billboards is only going to get worse and is emblematic of so much going wrong.
E-scooters, like them or not, matter for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they are highly visible. For or against, everyone has an opinion. Yet however deep No. 10 buries its head in the sand, the genie is out of the bottle (has been for five years, and the genie is growing).
Secondly, e-scooters matter because they are the leading form of a whole class of new small electric vehicles that are disrupting, and greatly improving, our hugely inefficient transport industry. E-bikes, e-cargo bikes, new form e-scooters with seats, three wheel, four wheel micro-EVs. Micro cars. All are advancing rapidly, providing great options for people travelling, all part of the same ecosystem. But e-scooters help make the economics of the system work for providers due to user popularity and lower cost. And they are getting better all the time.
I am obviously an advocate. I did a very Conservative thing five years ago. I saw an opportunity and created a new British company providing micro-mobility, not afraid to compete with the American and European companies that had been given a head start.
After dealing with transport conflicts for many years as a local councillor (like many people, I myself am both a cyclist and a car driver), I knew not everyone was going to turn into a cyclist, despite what Andrew Gilligan wanted.
I am also an engineer from the consumer electronics and telecoms industry. I have lived through fundamental industry disruptions before. Exactly the same pattern is happening here, including the boom, bust, and boom again, of the industry.
I do not expect No. 10 to be expert in all industries. That is not their job. But I do expect a Government that talks about innovation, attracting investment, wanting British companies to compete, to understand that while they do not create the opportunities, they can kill them. Our Government is killing far too many opportunities currently.
I also expect a Government that talks about law and order, respect for our police, and personal responsibility, not to hide from fixing laws that so transparently are not working. Read Henry Hill’s recent article about the importance of younger voters. Who are the Government absurdly criminalising? Everyone knows micro EVs will eventually be legalised, and the police (rightly) have other priorities.
No. 10 should know a few basics, though. Transport is among the top three household spends, worth over £100bn annually in the UK alone (and also by some measures the top emitter). New mobility is an enormous opportunity for British companies. If our Government keeps us 5-10 years behind Europe, America, and China, they will ensure we have nothing to replace the lost jobs in the declining auto industry. It is the same story in too many industries.
Couple that with the nature of most transport:
To be clear, as a Conservative, my instinct is, if you want to drive your car everywhere, happy to spend all that energy, space, and money, that is your choice. Just do not prevent others from choosing what they consider a better alternative. It will free up road space for you, lower demand for energy, lower prices, lower emissions, and lower the urgency for City Hall to penalise you out of your car.
All those Conservatives screaming that Net Zero will bankrupt us, that we need to find Conservative solutions and not penalties for people, here is a great example.
Then just to deal with those who believe there is a safety issue, I am happy to address that more fully. But please look at this link.
New small, low speed vehicles are very far from the most dangerous vehicles on the road.
To those saying, “but Paris banned e-scooters”, reporting has been dreadful. Paris has not banned e-scooters. The Mayor is playing a political game with shared operators. E-bikes will replace them for now, with all the same issues. Private e-scooters are still perfectly legal in Paris, and now outsell e-bikes. The national French Government is promoting increased use of e-scooters and other micro-mobility.
Even the ex-CEO of Aston Martin is switching to e-scooters. Read an interview with him, and his view about the damage the Government is doing.
Then finally, the politics from No. 10 is too short-termist and not thought through.
Wayne Gretzky, the Messi of ice hockey, famously said:
“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been”.
That should be posted in every political strategy room.
So where is the puck likely to be at the election next year?
There will be up to two million e-scooters sold in the UK, with the Government having done nothing to establish the rules in seven years. The police have other priorities. The European, American, and Chinese industries will have moved even further ahead of the UK, as they are in other industries.
Meanwhile, Labour is now talking about growing the economy and not just spending. That is good for the country. The question will come down to who is most competent to deliver. How competent will the Conservatives look with two million of these billboards out there and no rules set after seven years?
Even though they may not seem like the most important thing in life to many here (they should be to those wanting to cut emissions and lower energy usage), practical examples matter in politics.
If our Government is this slow and inept in handling the introduction of e-scooters, God help us with what AI is bringing.
As the ex-CEO of Aston Martin says, there is time to turn it around, but only just.