Bus Services (No. 2) Bill [Lords]

Charlie Maynard Excerpts

Report stage
Wednesday 10th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

I will speak to new clauses 1 and 2, and amendment 9. This Government are giving more powers to local authorities, such as the franchising of local bus services. They expect councils to fund more bus services, while they undermine and reduce councils’ core funding at the same time. Our amendment 3 would require the Secretary of State to assess the adequacy of central Government funding to support franchise schemes. That is essential because, due to the pandemic, bus service usage massively declined in my constituency of Wokingham.

Since then, the Lib Dem-run council has acted to improve local bus services, increasing the frequency of services on key routes. It is now predicted that bus services in Wokingham will recover to pre-pandemic rates. The Lib Dem-run council has done that despite being one of the lowest-funded unitary authorities in the country, but Labour’s new council funding formula will take £47 million away from Wokingham over the next three years. How can the Labour Government expect councils such as Wokingham to improve services and take on the responsibilities created by this Bill without proper support from Government, as is called for in amendment 3?

I wholeheartedly support new clause 2, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Tom Gordon), which proposes that time restrictions be removed from disabled people’s concessionary passes. That would be widely welcomed by many of my constituents.

I also support new clause 1, tabled by the Liberal Democrats, which would restore the £2 fare cap. That would help younger and older constituents in my Wokingham constituency.

[Charlie Maynard (Witney) (LD)]

There is a lot to welcome in the Bill, and I support the overarching aim. However, there are several important details that very much concern small operators and community transport providers in my Witney constituency, and I shall speak on their behalf. They include West Oxfordshire Community Transport, including Andrew Coles, Andrew Lyon and their team, and David Miles and Amanda, who have done so much to get the First & Last Mile moving.

My fear is that the franchising frameworks and new training requirements stipulated in the Bill will squeeze out community operators and that the social and economic cost will be severe, particularly in rural areas where mainstream operators have withdrawn. Section 22 community bus permit holders, who provide transport on a not-for-profit basis without the need for a full public service vehicle operator licence, ensure a service in communities that would otherwise be completely unserved. The Bill currently does not recognise this category at all. That raises a couple of worries.

One particular worry is that the new driver safeguarding and training requirements could become unworkable for small fleets. The Bill’s provisions do not clearly differentiate between private hire vehicles—dedicated school buses—and public service buses which may sometimes carry schoolchildren as part of the general route. In practice, that means that every driver would need full safeguarding training, regardless of the service they normally operate.