Transport for London: Funding

Fleur Anderson Excerpts

Monday 30th November 2020 Westminster Hall

[Fleur Anderson (Putney) (Lab)]

It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Sir David. I thank the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Elliot Colburn) and the Petitions Committee for bringing this important debate before us, as London MPs.

I thank the 170,000 people who signed the petition against the scrapping of free travel for under-18s and the 1,156 people from Putney who signed it, showing their support for the issue and for young people. It is rare for the voices of young people to be heard, but that is the focus of the debate today. I also thank all the TfL workers who have worked throughout the pandemic to keep us safe as we travel in London.

The plans to remove free transport for under-18s as part of the Transport for London bail-out package should never have been on the table in the first place, and must now be scrapped forever. We never want to see those coming back. Free travel is essential for enabling young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to travel to school; they cannot just change schools midway because of this policy change. They are already locked into having to travel across London. I declare an interest as the mother of a 14-year-old who uses the free travel to go across London to school every day.

Free travel can be essential for travelling to work or apprenticeships, or to get to places for sport and leisure. To cut off the best of London for the most disadvantaged but not for others is very unfair.

Just before half term, when we were not sure whether free travel would be scrapped, one mother came to me and said that she did now know whether she would be able to keep sending her son to school. Her income had gone down as a result of covid, and she had very tight bills. Like so many other families, she had to choose between food, rent and sending her children to school. For children who are disinclined to go to school—those we most want to get back to school—free travel is absolutely essential. There is no point spending money on a catch-up fund for education on the one hand and then cutting the money for getting to school on the other.

I found the Government’s response to the petition very disappointing. I do not know whether other Members saw it, but it was:

“The suspension of free travel for 11-17 year olds will help reduce demand for public transport at peak times”.

Well, children have to travel on public transport at peak times; that is when school starts and finishes. They cannot stay at home and choose when to travel during the day. That cannot be part of Government policy.

I absolutely support Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, who is right to champion the continuation of free travel for under-18s. He successfully forced the Government to give up their plans to scrap free travel for older and younger Londoners, and their absolutely unworkable plans to extend the congestion charge to the south circular, which I hope never come back to the table. All rail services have been hit by the pandemic. The Government immediately bailed out private rail companies with few strings attached, and the same should have happened for Transport for London. All MPs must work together to understand the needs of young Londoners and ensure that free travel remains.

The very extended closure of Hammersmith suspension bridge—a fantastic heritage structure—is also affecting young people travelling in London. Young people travelling to schools in my constituency and out to neighbouring constituencies across the river and across London are affected by the misery caused by the closure of Hammersmith bridge. TfL was poised to fund it just before the pandemic and there were discussions. Transport for London funding is very important, but now that TfL clearly cannot fund it, the Government must step up and do so urgently. The news that Putney boat race will not be happening in Putney, which was announced just a few days ago, was very disappointing and a huge blow for local businesses.

The closure of the bridge also compounds pollution across Putney. It clogs up our roads and makes trips to school, work and hospitals so much longer. The taskforce has been meeting for 10 weeks without very much task or force. I would really like the Minister to announce a change on that. Hammersmith and Fulham Council has done its best. It has put together a plan, started the restoration and looked into the danger that the bridge is causing, but the issue is becoming a political football. It is very disappointing to see the candidate for the mayoral election announcing funding for the bridge left, right and centre, but it does not appear; it is clearly just hot air. Will the Minister make a lot of people across south-west London very happy and bring an end to the misery of the Hammersmith bridge closure by announcing the funding of the restoration?