The chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Freight Transport (APPG) has said a push to extend student loans to cover would-be HGV drivers is not dead, despite the government seemingly killing-off the proposal.

Speaking to Motortransport.co.uk  at an event at Westminster last week, Rob Flello MP said that despite the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills rejecting one of the key planks of the APPG’s draft skills report, “the campaign is far from dead”.

Flello added that now the position of the other political parties was established on the issue, discussions could begin.

However, he conceded that with the General Election in May looming, which will see Westminster effectively close down, the issue is unlikely to be tackled until later this year when MPs return for a new parliament.

The FTA has also been championing an extension to student loans as a way of meeting the cost of HGV driver licence acquisition, and it recently told Motortransport.co.uk sister-title Commercial Motor that the association would continue to fight to win the extension despite the set-back.

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