Hammond takes the helm
May 13th 2010 Philip Hammond has taken over as Secretary of State for Transport in the new Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition government.
An MP since 1997, Hammond succeeds Lord Adonis of the previous administration.
The Conserative MP for Runnymede and Weybridge has won the post despite Theresa Villiers acting as Shadow Secretary of State for Transport since July 2007.
Hammond has a wide range of business experience in small and medium-sized companies in manufacturing, property & construction and oil & gas, both in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.
The Freight Transport Association has congratulated him on his appointment.
Theo de Pencier, chief executive of FTA, said: “We would like to congratulate Mr Hammond on his appointment as Transport Secretary, and we look forward to working with him on those pressing challenges facing the industry right now, from investment in infrastructure to finding workable carbon solutions and creating more capacity across all modes of transport.”
In brief, the Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition government has agreed the following on transport and business:
- The establishment of a high-speed rail network.
- The cancellation of the third runway at Heathrow.
- The refusal of additional runways at Gatwick and Stansted.
- Mandating a national recharging network for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
- The parties agree that a full Spending Review should be held, reporting this Autumn, following a fully consultative process involving all tiers of government and the private sector.
- We further agree to seek a detailed agreement on taxing non-business capital gains at rates similar or close to those applied to income, with generous exemptions for entrepreneurial business activities.
- We agree that ensuring the flow of credit to viable SMEs is essential for supporting growth and should be a core priority for a new government, and we will work together to develop effective proposals to do so. This will include consideration of both a major loan guarantee scheme and the use of net lending targets for the nationalised banks.
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