Bus and lorry lanes are expected to be introduced on some of the busiest stretches of England’s motorways

Bus and lorry lanes are expected to be introduced on some of the busiest stretches of England’s motorways.
The Highways Agency will also install new electronic warning signs to alert motorists when traffic ahead has stopped. The new measures are part of a £40m project to test traffic management systems, announced yesterday by the Transport minister Lord Macdonald of Tradeston.The trials are to take place either at the northern end of the M25 or on the M6 and M42 near Birmingham ­ both areas that experience some of the worst congestion in Britain.Other measures to be tested are the use of traffic lights on slip roads to control the number of vehicles moving on to motorways and linking speed limits to the degree of congestion to improve traffic flow.Closed-circuit cameras are to be introduced to allow faster response to accidents. At various times of the day priority will be given to certain types of traffic and “safe havens” just off the hard shoulder will be provided for broken-down vehicles.The Highways Agency chief executive, Tim Matthews, said the project would be tested over the next three to five years.Lord Macdonald, speaking at a Birmingham Chamber of Commerce lunch, launched a strong attack on supporters of a full privatisation of the London Underground and of the air traffic control system. He said they had shown “a breathtaking degree of feckless opportunism and inconsistency”.Lord Macdonald was also critical of Ken Livingstone, the London Mayor, who is opposing the Government’s private- public partnership plan for the Underground, saying Mr Livingstone wanted “to continue with the old, failed ways of running this complex transport system.” He added that claims that safety would be put at risk were “nonsense”.. A re-elected Labour government would introduce more radical reforms of the welfare state than it had achieved since coming to power in 1997, Alistair Darling said yesterday. A re-elected Labour government would introduce more radical reforms of the welfare state than it had achieved since coming to power in 1997, Alistair Darling said yesterday.
The Social Security Secretary outlined his vision ­ strongly endorsed by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown ­ for a “new model” welfare state, which would focus on making people independent rather than paying out state benefits.Some ministers are privately disappointed that the Blair government has shied away from major change since 1997, after bruising battles with Labour MPs over benefits cuts for single mothers and the disabled, and last year’s 75p-a-week rise in the basic state pension.

During the general election campaign, the Tories will accuse Mr Blair of failing to deliver the radical welfare shake-up he promised in 1997.Labour’s election manifesto is expected to promise a bolder approach if Mr Blair wins a second term. Proposals for the state to provide “baby bonds” worth up to £800 for children from low-income families, unveiled this week, will form part of a wider drive to modernise the welfare system. Some Labour MPs on the left of the party fear that the Blairites want to achieve big long-term cuts in the £100bn-a-year social security budget.In a keynote speech in Edinburgh yesterday, Mr Darling said: “Welfare reform will be as great a challenge in the next Parliament ­ if not greater ­ than it has been over the past few years. We must not turn back the clock, nor must we be complacent that with legislation passed, welfare reform is done.”We are seeing a fundamental shift towards our vision of a welfare state that is much more than just basic protection and insurance, but instead plays an active role in helping people to become independent So if they work, they see the benefit.

If they save, they are rewarded.”Mr Darling believes privately that the middle classes will not continue to support the welfare system unless it undergoes the change in culture envisaged by Labour. His view is that the system Labour inherited from the Tories in 1997 was unsustainable. Yesterday, he said that Labour’s proposed reforms were “the best way to ensure that the welfare state is sustainable and popular”.He said Labour wanted to turn the system from one designed to give people some basic protection and insurance, to one that helped them to become self-sufficient and to see the rewards of their own efforts. He conceded that the system did not do enough to reward people for working hard and saving hard, saying that the “baby bonds” plan would address this problem.”I believe that what people really want to see is a welfare state that is there to help them get on, rather than just to pay out a weekly benefit cheque,” he said. “Instead of just passively paying out benefits, our task is to deliver a system that works in partnership with individuals to get them whatever support they need, to get back into the labour market.”He said people had a right to expect a job, but that the Government equally had a right to expect them to take up the jobs on offer. Mr Darling hit back at commentators who have accused Labour of fudging welfare reform.