Bus Services: Blaydon

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd November 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Richard Holden)]

Madam Deputy Speaker, could you pass on my thanks to the Speaker for his kind letter following my appointment to this role? This is the first time I have spoken from the Dispatch Box, and I am delighted that it is in an Adjournment debate with the hon. Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist), who is my neighbour just to the north. I congratulate her on securing a debate about this vital issue and on the spirit in which she has spoken today.

The hon. Lady works hard to raise the issues that matter most to her and her constituents, and that is why, before focusing on the subject of this debate, I want to take a moment to commend her for her campaign on mental health and suicide prevention, which is a vital matter, particularly for our region. I know that she has spoken candidly and eloquently about it in the Chamber. While we sometimes disagree, we are often in agreement, such as on the European Statutory Instruments Committee of which we were both members for quite a while. I will hopefully be able to show some of that agreement tonight as I go through my speech.

Turning to bus services in Blaydon, I am acutely aware of the issues of which the hon. Lady speaks, because routes such as the 47, X46 and X71 go through my constituency and into hers. We have to work together with leaders from across the north-east to try to address transport issues, and the leader of Gateshead Council, Martin Gannon and I have worked closely, particularly during the pandemic, on the issues facing local transport services. I hope to be able to give the hon. Lady a little more clarity on what is coming forward, particularly on the bus service improvement plan. I fully understand and appreciate the hon. Lady’s concerns. In fact, I would probably be raising them myself had I not been moved to the Front Bench. I assure her that my officials have been in contact with Go North East in advance of this debate to understand further the issues specific to her constituency and across the wider north-east.

The Government are clear that we want public transport to be integral to the future of transportation across the country. Transport networks, and local bus services in particular, are vital to ensuring that communities can stay connected, supporting so many industries and getting employees to work, and to the broader levelling-up agenda. That has never been more important as we seek to recover from the global pandemic. After all, buses are the country’s favourite mode of transport, with more than 4 billion journeys made in 2019—twice as much as the next form of transport.

Turning to the hon. Lady’s points, I will start with BSIPs and then move on to environmental factors, low emission buses, the recovery fund, short-notice cancellations, driver shortages, and ZEBRA funding. On the broader national bus strategy and BSIPs, the Government have committed to investing over £3 billion in this Parliament to deliver improvements to bus services throughout the country. It is one of the largest investments in buses in recent years, and we are on track to meet that commitment, having already allocated £2.5 billion.

Our national bus strategy, published in 2021, sets out how we intend to deliver better bus services for passengers around the country through ambitious and far-reaching reform of how services are planned and delivered. The NBS is explicit about seeking to ensure that the needs of small towns and rural transport users are given equal consideration to those in urban environments and is supportive of improved connectivity and availability of services in rural areas. To deliver improvements around the country, in urban and rural areas, the strategy sets out how our work will fundamentally change the relationship between local authorities and bus operators. Crucially, we want to ensure that local authorities have a pivotal role, working with bus operators, to ensure the provision of bus networks that meet the needs of the local communities they serve.

As a first step, the Government asked every local authority to work with their bus operators to develop a clear, detailed, and ambitious local bus service improvement plan. BSIPs are intended to set out each local authority’s vision for improving bus services in their area over the long term, and to act as a guide to help design local transport networks that are tailor-made for the communities they serve, particularly when it comes to cutting fares and journey times and increasing frequency. In April, after assessing each of the plans, we were pleased to be able to offer indicative funding allocations to support 31 BSIPs totalling over £1 billion in both rural and urban areas.

The hon. Member for Blaydon welcomed the £163 million allocated to the North East and North of Tyne Combined Authorities. We have now confirmed final allocations for the vast majority of local transport authorities that have been selected to receive funding to deliver their BSIPs. The Department for Transport has been clear that BSIP funding is conditional on the submission and implementation of a transformational enhanced partnership or franchising arrangement. We are working with Transport North East on developing their enhanced partnership with a view to delivering funding once we are satisfied that it is in place. I assure the hon. Lady that that will happen in the not-too-distant future, and I will be delighted to write to her when it happens and maybe even come to her constituency to launch it in the next few months.

The hon. Lady also mentioned zero-emission buses and levelling up, which are important, particularly in towns that have had diesel buses causing air pollution for too long. The Government are clear that buses have an essential role to play in achieving net zero, driving the green transformation and creating cleaner and healthier places to live. We have supported bus companies in the north-east to introduce net zero buses.

Between 2019 and 2021, Go North East was awarded just under £3 million through the ultra low emission bus scheme for 18 net zero buses and associated charging infrastructure to operate within the Tyne and Wear region. The national bus strategy further committed to introduce 4,000 zero-emission buses and achieve an all-zero-emission bus fleet. That will support our climate ambitions, improve transport for local communities and deliver higher air quality and green jobs in places such as Falkirk and Scarborough. My right hon. Friend the Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Sir Robert Goodwill), who is chair of the all-party parliamentary group for the bus and coach industry, has already been banging on my door about delivering those jobs in the UK. On my first visit today, to the Euro Bus expo in Birmingham, I saw that there are great opportunities for the UK.

We are making good progress. Since February 2020, we have provided funding to support 2,400 zero-emission buses in England. Our zero-emission bus regional areas scheme has given local authorities nearly £270 million in funding for zero-emission buses and infrastructure. Several buses funded by ZEBRA have already been ordered, including 193 by First Bus, which is the largest single order for electric buses in the UK outside London. I also saw some of the ones that Liverpool has ordered for its metro system today.

I am aware, however, that although 4,000 buses is a good starting point—some of those are still to come—it is only a starting point. We need to go further and faster to decarbonise the whole bus fleet across the whole country. That is why in March, the Government launched a consultation to help to set the legal end date for the sale of new non-zero-emission buses at some point between 2025 and 2032. We will confirm that exact date in due course. We have also launched calls for evidence to decarbonise coaches and minibuses—minibuses are actually one of the big issues.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

I am much enjoying my hon. Friend’s debut at the Dispatch Box. Having worked with him previously in the Department for Transport, I know that he is a great champion for buses.

I want to confirm everything that I have just heard. My hon. Friend said that the zero-emission bus roll-out, which has been so successful, is not just for the north-east but for the whole country. Perhaps he will take the opportunity, if he wants to visit the leading low-emission town in the country, to visit Harrogate early in his agenda.

[Mr Holden]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I would be delighted to visit Harrogate at the earliest opportunity, and I hope that he will take me to Bettys tearoom as part of that.