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The Herald Scotland
11-08-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
The big downside of electric buses. I'm living it every day
But the real killer with all public policy is the unintended consequence, the one thing that the advisors and the spads didn't think of sitting around a table making the policy up and composing press releases and tweets. In the case of free travel for under-22s, it was the increase in anti-social behaviour it caused, because some young people realised pretty quickly that they could hang around on buses or head into town without it costing them anything and in many cases it hasn't ended well. As I say: unintended consequences. A bit harder to spot are the unintended consequences of the green buses themselves because, compared to diesel, they reduce carbon emissions and help to improve air quality. It's why the Scottish Government – still committed, you'll remember, to reach net zero by 2045 – has paid out £100million to bus firms to help them buy electric buses and put in all the associated gubbins and infrastructure. The money is paid through the awkwardly named ScotZEB (Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund) – the first payment was £62m in 2022, the second £41m last year. Added to the £222m spent on the under-22 travel scheme over two years, it adds up to a lot of cash being spent on funding buses and funding people to travel on them, the idea being that we'll all benefit in the end. But here's where the other unintended consequences kick in. As well as helping to improve air quality, which they do, the other thing we were told about electric buses was that they would be much quieter than the rattly, spewy diesels and that all those fleets of electric buses gliding past with a gentle hum would lead to not only cleaner streets but quieter streets as well. Living on a busy bus route can be noisy obviously, but electric buses, they said, would help reduce the noise, the stress associated with it, and even lead to a better night's sleep for people living in towns and cities. But I can tell you now that's not how it's panned out. Undoubtedly, the old diesel buses, with their engines rattling and exhaust pipes rasping, could be noisy and unpleasant machines, but I've lived on a busy bus route in Glasgow for more than 30 years and never noticed the old diesel vehicles from inside the house. To be honest, I didn't really give them a second thought. Read more This is all that remains. But there's hope in these ruins A church and a warehouse up in flames. So what's with all the fires? LEZ and the problem with Glasgow's trees plan With the electric buses, however, it's completely different. The batteries make the vehicles between 10 and 30% heavier than diesels, meaning they're cleaner yes but quieter no. I'm not the only one in our Victorian block of flats who's noticed the thump and rattle and bang of the heavy electric buses going past or pulling up at the bus-stop outside. In some cases, the whole building shakes, the vibrations running up from the road, into the walls and through the floor. We never had this problem with the diesels. It's particularly bad when the buses hit the cracks and potholes and you know Glasgow: there are a lot of cracks and potholes. It's also creating a bit of a downward spiral: the roads were in a terrible state before electric buses became common, but the heavy vehicles are making it worse because they're harder wearing on the roads. And so the electric buses thump noisily into the cracks and potholes and make the cracks and potholes worse which increases the noise and down we go. The scale of the issue was laid out in a report by researchers at Edinburgh University entitled 'Hidden cost of road maintenance due to the increased weight of battery and hydrogen trucks and buses – a perspective' (I could have come up with a catchier title for them but never mind). What they concluded was that a complete conversion of the existing vehicle fleet to battery electric vehicles was likely to increase annual road wear in Scotland by around 20-40%. More alarmingly, they also concluded that the cash spent on maintaining the existing condition of the roads would need to increase by around £164million per year if all large vehicles transitioned to battery electricity. John Swinney announcing more funding for electric buses (Image: Newsquest) This does not make for a pleasant future (or a quieter one). It's possible, of course, that new lighter battery technology will be developed in time, but in the meantime the significant increase in the wear and tear on the roads, according to the Edinburgh University report and according to common sense, will lead to increased maintenance costs and potentially the need to construct new roads to a higher standard. The report points out that even the current levels of maintenance are inadequate to sustain the state of the roads and that if it continues the same way, the greater demands made by heavier electric buses and trucks will lead to an even faster deterioration. Take a look at the roads and imagine it. All of this means that the Scottish Government is effectively shovelling millions into a scheme that will cost it millions. On the face of it, what they're doing is subsidising quieter, greener public transport. But it's public transport that's making the condition of the roads worse which will require increased maintenance and repair – a cost that the Government will have to pick up. I'm not suggesting, by the way, that Nicola Sturgeon, posing happily with a charging cable, or anyone else, knew that the buses they loved so much would in fact be noisier and land the taxpayer with a big bill for road repairs. But I am suggesting that now we know that's the case, we start to come up with a plan. For the sake of our finances. For the sake of our roads. And for the sake of my peace and quiet.
The Herald Scotland
19-06-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Alexander Dennis: ScotGov accused of 'neglect' on firm off to England
A row erupted in the Scottish Parliament in the wake of revelations in the Herald over the depth of the public funding for Scottish jobs over the past ten years - and even while it was cutting back its workforce by a third five years ago. The Herald also revealed how the First Minister was warned about Alexander Dennis was "reconsidering" its "entire investment" in Scotland a year before announcing it plans last week to relocate to England putting 400 jobs at risk. Calls have been made to claw money back money if Alexander Dennis follows through with its plans. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- READ MORE from Martin Williams Swinney got year-long warning England-bound bus firm was 'reconsidering' Scotland FM in funding row as £90m public cash for Scots jobs given to firm going to England Union says 1600 Scots jobs at risk if government doesn't act in 'national interest' ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Scottish Conservative Central Scotland MSP Stephen Kerr told Ms Forbes: "There is £90m of public money went to ADL and yet there was not even a guarantee of jobs. "This crisis didn't come out oft he blue. The SNP governmet was warned for over a year and did nothing. When ADL asked for support they were met with silence. "When Scottish jobs were on the line, the Scottish Government were looking in another direction. "When orders for buses were needed, those orders went to China. "This was not a matter of subsidy control it is strategic neglect." He added: "It is a betrayal of Scottish manufacturing. " The Herald revealed that the row between ministers and ADL emerged over levels of support and had its roots in Scottish Government schemes launched from 2020 to accelerate the use and manufacture of zero and low emission buses in Scotland and 'help drive a green recovery out of the Covid pandemic" which have been worth a total of £155.8m to date. Frustrations emerged after May, 2023 when Alexander Dennis hosted the second phase of the Scottish Government's Zero Emissions Bus Challenge Fund (ScotZEB) which was to have funding worth £58m. It also showcased its Enviro100EV concept, a lightweight single-deck zero-emission bus with new in-house battery powertrain confirmed that grant backing accelerated its development. (Image: PA) In a scathing letter seen by The Herald, Paul Soubry, president and chief executive of Alexander Dennis's parent company NFI, told John Swinney that recent developments had 'regretfully left [them] with the impression that the Scottish Government has little regard for domestic bus manufacturing jobs in Scotland'. The First Minister was also told they had already been 'forced' to offshore certain manufacturing functions to China. But a Scottish Government memo said that ADL had received orders for 363 zero-emission buses from ScotZEB more than any other manufacturer benefitting from the schemes. A separate briefing states that Alexander Dennis was awarded only 17% or 44 buses from second phase of the programme. A significant grant through the ScotZeb 2 programme was awarded to Zenobe, and its consortium of bus and coach operators to support the transition of bus fleets to electric. ADL, which incurred total losses over three years of £44.9m between 2021 and 2023, made its own bid to the programme but was unsuccessful. While ADL was a supplier to the successful consortium it was not a formal part of it. Ms Forbes said that its policy interventions had been designed to "accelerate uptage of zero emission buses in the Scottish market". And she said that the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise had "continued to provide ongoing support to the company, both directly and through support for the adoption of zero emission". She said: "We will work in close collaboration with the company, with trade unions and the UK Government to find practical solutions. Kate Forbes (Image: Colin Mearns) "We are not going to play politics with this situation. We will continue to explore every avenue to avoid job losses. "I recognize that ADL cannot stand still. We want to support the company, to innovate, to bring forward new products that reflect changes in the sector. In this government, we will continue to do all in our power to support Alexander Dennis and their highly skilled workers."
The National
18-06-2025
- Business
- The National
We need to look at where our money goes and why we get so little back
Lately, I've found myself coming back to that question again and again. It's the title of a book published last month in France – Où sont passés nos milliards – by Lucie Castets, a high-ranking civil servant and co-founder of the public sector collective Nos Services Publics (Our Public Services). Castets is one of the sharpest voices on the French left today. She's not an activist or a party leader. The 38-year-old is a technocrat who has worked inside the system and who believes that public money must serve the public good – not just in theory, but in practice. She came to prominence in the summer of 2024, during France's snap parliamentary elections. As the left regrouped under the banner of the Nouveau Front Populaire – a broad coalition uniting Greens, Socialists, Communists and La France Insoumise – Castets was floated as a possible compromise candidate for prime minister. Her name stood out precisely because she wasn't from a party machine. She embodied a kind of pragmatic radicalism rooted in public service – and she brought credibility to a growing movement demanding that state budgets be treated not as fixed constraints, but as tools for justice, solidarity and long-term planning. Reading her work from Scotland, it's hard not to draw parallels. READ MORE: Anti-indy media fears reporting success may prove Scotland outshines Westminster Alexander Dennis, a Scottish bus manufacturer headquartered in Falkirk, has received millions in public support over the past few years – through schemes like ScotZEB, aimed at greening public transport and supporting domestic industry. And yet, just days ago, the company announced it plans to shut down its Scottish manufacturing operations and relocate to Scarborough in England. Four hundred direct jobs are at risk. Up to 1600 more are tied to the wider supply chain. The Scottish Government says it will 'do everything it can' to support the workers. But what did it do before this announcement? First Minister John Swinney has admitted he was made aware of the plans 'weeks ago'. And yet, there's been no clear explanation of whether public funding continued to flow to the company during that time – and if so, under what conditions. This is not just about subsidies or contracts. It's about accountability. It's about whether governments are acting as stewards of the common good – or as passive bystanders to corporate decision-making. Alexander Dennis is not an isolated case. It is part of a larger pattern in Scotland and across Europe: public money flows freely, often with the right intentions, but without strategic conditions. We talk about fair work, local benefit and the green transition – but we don't enforce it. As Paul Davies, the firm's managing director, bluntly put it: 'The stark reality is that current UK policy does not allow for the incentivisation or reward of local content, job retention and creation, nor does it encourage any domestic economic benefit.' This is precisely what Castets calls out. Her book is a powerful takedown of the idea that 'the coffers are empty'. In fact, as she shows, public budgets in France have remained stable in volume. What has changed is how the money is spent. The share of GDP allocated to public services like health, education and justice has stagnated or declined. Meanwhile, public support to businesses – via tax credits, subsidies and exemptions – has ballooned, doubling from 3.1% of GDP in 1979 to 6.2% today. That's roughly €185 billion a year. She shows that many of these schemes – such as the CICE (a tax credit for competitiveness and employment) and R&D tax credits – are not only ineffective but regressive. They disproportionately benefit large firms and deliver poor returns in terms of job creation. As Castets notes, it would have been far more efficient, in terms of both cost and outcomes, to use that same money to hire well-paid civil servants. READ MORE: G7 support for Israel's war on Iran 'threatens humanity', expert warns Beneath the technocratic language of 'modernisation' and 'efficiency' lies a clear ideological tilt: prioritising the needs of the private market over collective investment. Castets calls this a form of 'ideological unravelling' – a steady hollowing out of the state's ability to act, framed as fiscal necessity. In an interview, she said: 'We need to rethink society in terms of interests – economic and social interests – if we are to rebuild a fairer system that people can actually identify with. And that's clearly not the case today.' She doesn't oppose all support to business. What she demands is transparency and democratic scrutiny. She argues that the debate on public spending is rigged: we are told constantly that there is no money for services, while few challenge the enormous – and often ineffective – flow of public money into private hands. As she puts it: 'Today, the state acts as a crutch for a capitalism that has failed to organise either the fair distribution of wealth or the ecological transition. The world of tomorrow must be one in which the state plays a strategic role. We need to give the state back the means to think long term.' Scotland urgently needs this conversation. Because here, too, we are presented with a false dichotomy: either we nationalise everything, or we let the market sort it out. In practice, we end up doing neither – or worse, we let public money prop up failing market logic without any of the promised social returns. We try to make the market work better, rather than asking whether certain needs should even be left to the market in the first place. The result is what we're seeing now: a public that's being asked to foot the bill for a 'green transition' that too often looks like corporate welfare. A political class that wants credit for good intentions, but avoids hard questions about power, ownership and control. And workers – from Falkirk to Grangemouth – who are once again being told their jobs are collateral damage in someone else's strategy. But there is another way. Lucie Castets and others have laid the groundwork for a renewed economic vision in which public investment is not just reactive, but purposeful. In which the state acts not as a backstop for broken markets, but as a co-creator of public value. This vision is already being articulated on parts of the French left – by figures like united left MP Clémentine Autain and Socialist MP Boris Vallaud – and it resonates far beyond France. It should resonate here, too. A genuinely progressive government in Scotland – whether devolved or independent – cannot be content with managing decline. It must be willing to ask: Who controls investment? Who benefits from public money? And what do we demand in return? READ MORE: Majority of Stagecoach drivers to return to work tomorrow ahead of pay vote Alexander Dennis should be a wake-up call. Not just about industrial policy, but about democracy. If public money is always on the table, then the public must be on the board. We need mechanisms that link funding to long-term commitments: not just on jobs, but on supply chains, training and ownership. We need procurement and subsidy rules with teeth – rules that reward domestic value creation, not just technical compliance. And above all, we need the political courage to say that good intentions are not enough. Scotland deserves an industrial policy that matches its ambitions. That means moving beyond the comfort zone of managing market failure and towards a strategic, democratic economy. And maybe the best place to start is with Castets's question: where have our billions gone? Because if we can't answer that, how can we know what to build next?
Scotsman
14-06-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Scots pay half billion in subsidies while China build the buses
Alexander Dennis has announced it plans to close down its Falkirk area operations to relocate to one single base in Scarborough (Picture: Michael Gillen, National World) Ministers should have been using their leverage over the big operators to keep Falkirk afloat Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... One way and another, the Scottish Government subsidises bus services by more than half a billion pounds a year. There would hardly be a bus on a Scottish road without subsidy which accounts for well over half of total revenue. There has been another £150 million for the ScotZEB programme 'to deliver zero-emission buses to Scotland's roads', the latest in a series of capital funds without which there would be precious few new or refurbished buses on our highways and by-ways. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Put these two facts together and the prospective loss of a bus manufacturing industry in Scotland borders on the incomprehensible. Beyond buses, if a 'procure in Scotland' strategy cannot be applied in this case, what hope is there of enforcing local content provisions in other sectors, notably renewable energy? Without political backbone, it won't happen. Ensuring the survival of Scotland's bus network is a good use of public funds. Equally, for any government to invest this kind of money and then claim it has no leverage over where it is spent is preposterous – and that should be the starting point in addressing the future of Alexander Dennis Ltd and maintaining a proud, skilled industry. While the Scottish Government pours money into our bus network, of more than 250 buses ordered under ScotZEB, 44 will be built in Falkirk. In the second phase of this scheme, two thirds of orders went to a single Chinese company where Scotland is doubtless the boardroom toast. There is something far, far wrong – and avoidable - about that outcome. I saw a sound-bite from Kate Forbes, the deputy first minister, in which her priority was to transfer political responsibility. Her own administration, she said sweetly, was unable to specify 'local content' because of UK legislation and, she claimed, the Scottish Government's pleas for relief from this constraint had been in vain. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Even by SNP standards, it sounded a rather premature piece of blame shifting since every sinew of current effort should surely be devoted to saving these 400 jobs in Falkirk and Larbert, not explaining them away. Ms Forbes' attempt at self-exoneration also failed the credibility test on multiple grounds. Most obviously, the publicly owned Greater Manchester Bees Network has purchased 160 state of the art buses from Falkirk and is delighted with the product. Somehow, the office of Andy Burnham found a way through challenges which Ms Forbes portrays as show-stoppers. Did she or her civil servants ever pick up the phone to Manchester? In the last few days, in an effort to head off redundancies, the Secretary of State for Scotland, Ian Murray, has written to all the Metro Mayors in England, who will soon be ordering buses, asking them to follow Manchester's example. Meanwhile, the Scottish Government claims to be helpless while the orders it funds flow out to China. The legislation which supposedly presents such an obstacle to the Scottish Government is the Subsidy Control Act of 2022 which replaced what existed pre-Brexit. It was needed to keep the UK inside the terms and conditions of the World Trade Organisation and the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT). Dry but necessary stuff. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It is disputed whether the ScotZEB scheme counts as subsidy for the purposes of the Act. Even if it does, the job of Ministers and civil servants in these circumstances should be to put together a case, based on exemptions available, which allows direct awards to be made. At the same time, Ministers should have been using their leverage over the big operators to keep Falkirk afloat. Neither is it true to claim that this is something which has crept up on the Scottish Government without prior notice. Last September, the company started a consultation process about 160 redundancies for exactly the same reasons they are now citing. They needed more buses to build. At that point, every stop should have been pulled out to ensure the ScotZEB orders were going to Falkirk and not to China. Any Minister worth his or her salt looks for deals to make in these circumstances which are not necessarily underpinned by formal agreements. I did it back in my own Ministerial days in not dissimilar circumstances but this is not party political. I have no doubt Michael Forsyth knew how to apply a bit of friendly pressure and I am absolutely certain Alex Salmond would have told a couple of bus operators exactly what was expected from them, or else. If the Scottish Government cannot use its leverage to fight for jobs, it is entirely due to the absence of competence or creativity within its current ranks. John Swinney's plaintive plea that he 'cannot act in a fashion outwith the provisions of the law' is the language of a bureaucrat whose obligation is to find a rationalisation for inactivity. The possibility always exists, of course, that a company has decided on a course of action for its own reasons and has no interest in being dissuaded from it. The only way to find that out is to make an offer which they would, if goodwill exists, be unlikely to refuse. In this case, a decent order for buses, underwritten by the Scottish Government, might, for example, be enough to buy a stay of execution – and would certainly test the bona fides of the Canadian owners. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
Scotsman
14-06-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
SNP told to 'look themselves in the mirror' over bus maker Alexander Dennis job cuts
Sign up to our Politics newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... SNP ministers have been told to 'look themselves in the mirror' over job cuts at bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis. Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said it "cannot be right" for the mayor of Greater Manchester to have ordered more buses from the firm than the Scottish Government. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He suggested SNP ministers had failed to act with urgency over the job losses. John Swinney | PA The company announced on Wednesday it was proposing to consolidate its UK operations at a single site in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. The decision puts 400 jobs at risk at its facility in Falkirk in another blow to the Forth Valley, which has already seen more than 400 jobs go at the Grangemouth refinery this year. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Speaking to The Scotsman, Mr Murray said: "As I understand it, Alexander Dennis contacted the Scottish Government some three weeks ago now. "The Scottish Government didn't indicate to the UK government there was a problem. We only heard about this last week and we did everything we possibly could to try and find a way through. "In fact, I was standing outside a Spar in the rain on a call with the Deputy First Minister [Kate Forbes] on Thursday at the by-election in Hamilton last week trying to get together, and the conclusion of that was they put a working group together, knowing the company was going to announce the redundancies on Monday. They delayed that 48 hours to allow for other discussions to happen. 'But look, we just need to leave no stone unturned to get a solution to this, because you can't have a situation where Scotland's indigenous bus company is going to go to the wall, but the Scottish Government aren't ordering enough buses from them, but the mayor of Manchester is. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad "That's completely inequitable, so we have to find a way through that." Scottish Secretary Ian Murray | PA Labour has accused Holyrood ministers of overlooking Scottish industry in favour of ordering buses from China, while pointing to the order from Alexander Dennis of around 160 vehicles by the publicly-owned network in Greater Manchester. The claim stems from the second phase of the Scottish Government's green bus initiative ScotZEB, which ordered 44 buses from Alexander Dennis. However, according to a press release from the time, 137 buses were ordered from the firm in the first phase, amounting to a total of 181. In Scotland, public service buses are procured by private operators, who then run them on routes across the country. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad First Minister John Swinney previously said state aid regulations – in the form of the UK-wide Subsidy Control Act – prevent the Government from directly procuring from a single supplier like Alexander Dennis. Alexander Dennis has announced it plans to close down its Falkirk area operations to relocate to one single base in Scarborough (Picture: Michael Gillen, National World) He said the Scottish Government would do 'everything we can' to support jobs. The possibility of a furlough scheme for staff impacted by the announcement is on the table, he confirmed. But Mr Murray said: "They have to look themselves in the mirror. But they should be leaving no stone unturned about how we can keep this bus company open." Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said: 'The absolute focus right now is on supporting Alexander Dennis Ltd its workforce, as well as the families and communities they support. We also recognise the significance of the company within the local economy and across the wider supply chain. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'The Scottish Government has committed to exploring all viable options throughout the consultation period to allow the firm to retain their hard-working employees and manufacturing and production facilities at Falkirk and Larbert.
