Rail Manufacturing: Job Losses

Liz Twist Excerpts

Tuesday 16th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Huw Merriman]

A lot of the finance I talked about and the orders that have been brought forward, which is why we have a relatively young fleet, are the result of train operators being able to use their own balance sheets in order to invest. Rail finances are back to only about 80% of where they were pre-covid because of changes in working patterns; that has been more of a challenge, which is why the Government and the taxpayer take on more of the burden. On meetings with the unions, I should reference the meeting I had with union representatives from Alstom and the workforce, who were superb. They wanted to do their business in a sensible, calm way while also challenging, and rightly so. That provides us with the motivation to try to intervene and deliver a solution, and that is what the Secretary of State is doing right now.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

The potential loss of jobs at Hitachi will hit the north-east economy as a whole, and it is vital that we maintain rail manufacturing capability there. What are the Government going to do to ensure that we do not lose that facility because of a gap in orders? What will they do to ensure that does not happen and to save those jobs?

[Huw Merriman]

It is important to note that Hitachi is not currently consulting on any changes in the workforce, but it is of course concerned and it speaks to hon. Members in this place to put those concerns across, and I welcome that approach. Where train operators have rolling stock that is older and needs renewing, we are putting them out to market—those operators are TransPennine, Northern, Southeastern and Chiltern. Bringing those orders through will assist, but I come back to the export part of this: if our fleet is getting younger, meaning there will not be as many orders, we really need to see our four great manufacturers being able to export more abroad to deliver for UK plc.

Pavement Parking

Liz Twist Excerpts

Thursday 7th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

I rarely have the chance of speaking two times on one day in quick succession.

I am glad to have secured this debate, but I am sad that we are having to revisit the topic. My first Adjournment debate in this House on 6 June 2018 was on pavement parking. I am sorry that nearly six years on, we are still only talking about preventing it. I am by no means the only person to have raised this subject, as the Minister knows. Since that debate, we have had promises to resolve the problem, a few Government announcements and even a consultation three years ago—but still no Government response, much less any action.

Guide Dogs set out well what has been happening. It pointed out that it has supported private Member’s Bills in the House of Commons in 2014 and 2015, which contributed to the Department for Transport decision to commission research on pavement parking. The Department subsequently held a consultation on managing pavement parking between 31 August and 22 November 2020, exploring three options: first, to improve the traffic regulation order process by which local authorities can already prohibit pavement parking; secondly, a legislative change to allow local authorities civil parking enforcement powers to enforce against unnecessary restriction of the pavement; and, thirdly, a legislative change to introduce a London-style pavement parking prohibition throughout England. Guide Dogs supported all three, but it strongly emphasises the third option, to introduce a law across the rest of England.

[Afzal Khan (Manchester, Gorton) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate. In Manchester, pavement parking continues to prevent people from participating in everyday life, especially vulnerable and disabled people. Back in May 2023, I petitioned Parliament to outlaw pavement parking across the country. That had huge support from my constituents and local authorities, but the Government have done nothing about it. Does she share my concern that the Government continue to show their contempt for the people of Britain by failing to enforce simple measures that would greatly benefit the public?

[Liz Twist]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend.

The argument for a pavement parking ban needs little restatement. All the organisations that have contacted me since I secured this debate are largely in agreement. They say that pavement parking puts pedestrians in danger, including disabled and older people, as well as parents with children, and that the Government must take action. Locally, I know, there are major issues with the school run for parents and children negotiating parked cars. From my constituents who raised this issue, I know it is clearly one that is deeply felt. I am sure that they are not alone in that in Blaydon. Residents regularly tell me about the problems pavement parking causes outside the little shops in Winlaton, along the high street in Birtley or even just up from my home along the main road in Ryton.

Guide Dogs UK has done a lot of work on this issue because pavement-parked vehicles pose a particular risk to people with sight loss, blocking their routes, creating trip hazards and forcing them to walk on to roads full of traffic which they cannot see. Research by Guide Dogs has found that virtually all people with sight loss have been forced to walk in the road due to pavement-parked vehicles. Some 80% of respondents said that pavement parking affects them weekly, while one in five said that they had been injured as a result of it. A third of people with sight loss said that they are less willing to go out alone just in case they come up against vehicles blocking their path. It is deeply unjust that people with sight loss should have their everyday lives disrupted because of this issue.

In my last Adjournment debate, I talked about my experience of meeting Margaret and Laurel, constituents of mine who are both visually impaired, and taking a walk with them blindfolded, or with restrictive glasses, on my local street. At the time, they told me that they had lost confidence in going out alone, and that their independence was at risk because of the number of vehicles parked on the path. I had the chance to catch up with Laurel ahead of this debate, and I am sad to say that little has changed for her in the past six years. She shared with me the following message:

“Where I live, all the houses are built in the 1950s and many don’t have their own drive. As a result, everyone parks their cars on the pavement. You can’t get past them, and often Tasha, my Guide Dog, and I have to walk in the road. It’s not just the one car we have to get past—I frequently have to go in the road to get past a few of them, which is so frightening as you can’t hear bikes or quieter cars. If I try to get past without going on the road, I find that I often hit my head on the wing mirrors, which is unnerving in itself.

I want to be independent and use the pavement without having to get help, but there are so many cars about that it’s getting harder all the time. I recently went to catch the bus but found there were cars parked each side of the bus stop pole, stopping me from waiting there, and preventing the bus from pulling up. I had to step out into the road to get to the door of the bus, which was nerve racking. You don’t know what might be coming towards you and you are putting yourself and your guide dog in danger. Because I’d had to step down into the road, the step onto the bus wasn’t at the height I’m used to, and I missed it and fell, really hurting myself. The driver didn’t help and just said he’d report the problem.

On another occasion when I was coming home, the bus got to my stop and struggled pulling into the curb because of the cars. The driver actually stopped right in front of the pole so that it was right in front of the doors when they opened. If I’d got out, I’d have walked straight into it but fortunately, my son was with me on that occasion, and he grabbed hold of me to stop me.

I feel really angry because people parking on the pavements just don’t realise what problems they cause Tasha and I when we’re out, and I want someone to stop this happening.”

The focus of my debate is the problems that we are having in my Blaydon constituency, which, as the Minister knows—it is next to his constituency—is in the north-east. I note that the north-east deeper devolution deal, which was published yesterday, contains a section that addresses pavement parking. The North East Mayoral Combined Authority’s stated intention to develop a consistent approach to enforcement is laudable, and I know that my local authority, Gateshead Council, has previously looked at what it can do to help with the problem, but identifying streets and issuing traffic regulation orders is a lengthy, impractical and costly process, and local authority civil enforcement officers have few powers where there are no lines or signs present. That is why so many organisations and local authorities have called for a system that allows for blanket prohibition, such as the one that currently operates in London, with the potential to allow for exceptions where local geographies or street designs make them necessary.

The national consultation was set up to consider what the Government could do to support councils to take action on this issue. I gently remind the Minister that that consultation took place in 2020, and it stated that a summary of responses would be published within three months of its closing. It has now been 1,285 days since the consultation closed, but we are without a substantive update. That is without considering the dawdling that took place prior to the consultation, which I understand the Government had initially planned for early 2017, or—to look even further back—the time that has elapsed since the hon. Member for North Dorset (Simon Hoare) introduced a private Member’s Bill on this issue in 2015.

In a debate in the House of Lords only a few weeks ago, the Under-Secretary of State, Lord Davies of Gower, told that House:

“Yes, it is time and I am hopeful that in the not-too-distant future we will come out with a report on this.”—[Official Report, House of Lords, 21 February 2024; Vol. 836, c. 607.]

I can understand that the 15,000 responses that I believe were submitted need to be looked at, and that considering them takes some time, but from hearing those words from Lord Davies, one could be forgiven for assuming that the Government were just running a tad over the deadline. We are now more than three years on, and it is disappointing that the Government cannot promise us anything better than vague hopes for a response.

[Afzal Khan]

I thank my hon. Friend for being generous in giving way. A recent Sustrans report found that 49% of people in Greater Manchester wish to walk or use their wheelchair more, and 40% want to cycle more. Does she agree that if the Government banned pavement parking nationally, that would improve the accessibility of our footways, make our streets safer, and encourage people to choose active travel alternatives to cars?

[Liz Twist]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. We are all looking to develop active transport policies, and making it easier for people to walk on pavements and use public transport safely is a real issue, so I very much welcome that report.

As I have said, 15,000 responses might be a lot of paperwork to get through, but they also suggest a high level of public engagement and interest in this issue. The Government owe it to disabled people, as well as the wider public, to ensure that they complete this process. As such, I ask the Minister whether the Department for Transport will commit today to urgently publish the response to the consultation on managing pavement parking, and to set out a timetable for introducing legislation.

Everyone should feel safe and confident when using pavements in their local area, but so many people, including many families walking to school, are suffering. People like my constituents Laurel and Margaret are suffering from social isolation and a loss of independence due to the lack of action on this issue. People with disabilities must not be an afterthought, so I hope that the Government will stop taking them for a ride, crack on and address their concerns.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Guy Opperman)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist), who is my constituency neighbour, on securing this Adjournment debate on what is genuinely a very important issue—I do not diminish it in any way whatsoever. I acknowledge that the hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton (Afzal Khan) has also previously raised this matter in the House. I have had my brief for about 100 days, and have taken the trouble to read transcripts of the previous debates.

I am also acutely conscious that a vast amount of evidence has been provided by a large number of organisations. Like the hon. Lady, I have met Guide Dogs UK, and I know that this is a very serious issue that affects individuals up and down the country in a genuine and serious way, including people who are disabled, those who have children, those with prams and buggies, those who are walking their dog and those who are engaging in active travel, for which I am also the Minister. We have increased the budget for encouraging active travel by 10, and we are trying to persuade people to get behind it, so I do not want to diminish the importance of this issue in any way. I acknowledge that it is very serious.

As the hon. Member for Blaydon knows and has previously outlined, there has been a total ban on pavement parking in London since 1974. However, to be fair, successive Governments of different political persuasions have decided since 1974 that there should not be a nationwide ban. That is partly because London is clearly a different environment from other parts of the country, particularly in terms of rurality. However, she will also be aware—I am repeating things that both she and the hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton know—that there are traffic regulation orders, as well as prescribed traffic signs and bay markings.

To give some context, the Transport Select Committee’s report in September 2019 was highly detailed and took huge amounts of evidence, and to a certain extent triggered the Government to respond. That Committee sought reform of the TRO process, a change in the legislation governing the enforceable offences of obstructive pavement parking—as I will deal with later, that legislation is not simple by any stretch of the imagination—and consideration of a nationwide ban in some shape or form.

As a result, and following consideration and, rightly, extensive debate in the House on an ongoing basis, there was the consultation. As the hon. Member for Blaydon says, 15,000 people responding to a Government consultation is probably more than any other that I am aware of—certainly in the transport space. When I was the Employment Minister, I was not aware of such detailed consultations. Clearly, there are some that do generate more than that, but this was not just on the three main points, because bear in mind that there were 15,000 responses on 15 different issues. That produced, as she rightly outlined, thousands of pieces of individual feedback, all of which need to be read and analysed. An awful lot of different Departments need to consider different matters, and local authorities are utterly key to that, as is the Department for Transport and the like.

I want to make the point that we understand the issues, and if we did not understand them before the consultation, we most definitely do now. There are obviously inherent dangers for all pedestrians, and the hon. Lady rightly identified the particular situations for her constituents, for whom I have genuine sympathy. However, it must be recognised that many towns and cities—as was clearly set out in the Transport Committee report and the consultation the Government undertook—are not designed to accommodate today’s traffic levels, and in some locations the pavement is the only place to park without obstructing the carriageway, not least because there needs to be a free flow of traffic for the emergency services, which is a factor that the Government have to consider.

[Liz Twist]

I understand that issue, and I understand that one of the proposals is to have a blanket ban, but allow opt-outs in particular circumstances. That is clearly necessary, and I do not think anyone is arguing that there are not circumstances in which that would be the case. However, this is sounding as though we are not getting to a conclusion and that we are not going to have a decision on this issue, because it is too difficult. Is that right?

[Guy Opperman]

No, I think that is a slightly unfair, with great respect. I endorse entirely the comments of my noble Friend Lord Davies of Gower, who responded to that specific point in the House of Lords very recently. He specifically said that the Government were coming to a conclusion very soon. I have unquestionably become aware of that since having taken up this post, and it will unquestionably be decided in the very near future. I do not want the hon. Lady to walk away from this debate thinking that this is not under consideration.

As the hon. Lady knows, existing legislation allows local authorities to introduce traffic regulation orders to manage traffic. Examples are one-way streets or banned turns, and the TROs also allow local authorities the freedom to decide if and how they wish to restrict pavement parking in their local area. However, we acknowledge—and the consultation clearly shows—that the process of making a TRO can be time-consuming and burdensome for local authorities, and it is clear that that requires reform. What reform looks like is not simple, but we unquestionably feel there is a capability to do that. There is also scope to reduce the cost of this process, because there is undoubtedly a lot bureaucracy and time that goes with it. If one could introduce a digitised, non-paper-based system, that would speed up applications and clearly make communication better. There is a clause to make that change in the Automated Vehicles Bill, which is going through the House and had its Second Reading earlier this week, and that will make it quicker and cheaper for local authorities to implement TROs.

The second recommendation was about unnecessary obstruction of the road. There are already some criminal offences in this space, and we are looking at how we amend the regulations to make unnecessary obstruction of the pavement enforceable by local authorities, while leaving obstruction of the carriageway, rightly, as a criminal matter. This would label civil enforcement officers to address instances of unnecessarily obstructive pavement parking, as and when they find it. The enforcement of these offences would be more targeted than for a general prohibition of pavement parking.

--- Later in debate ---

[Guy Opperman]

This option has challenges. Parking offences currently subject to local authority civil enforcement are violations of clearly defined restrictions indicated by traffic signs and road markings. By contrast, unnecessary obstruction that could not be indicated by traffic signs or bay marking as an obstruction is a general offence, which may occur anywhere. That is difficult to define and will require case-by-case assessment. The Department will likely need to issue very specific guidance to steer local authorities on what might be deemed unnecessary obstruction in order to prevent inappropriate and inconsistent enforcement.

The third option is a national prohibition. That is being considered, but there was considerable pushback against it in certain circumstances. As the hon. Member for Blaydon outlined, one would have to assess how it would possible in circumstances where there are significant and large local authorities, particularly rural ones, which would struggle to make the specific decisions on exemptions. However, we are looking at that particular situation to make a decision on where pavement parking would be necessary. A local authority would have to limit the necessary exemptions, and install traffic signs and bay marking to indicate all the places where pavement parking was to be permitted. That would be extremely difficult, particularly in rural areas. However, it is not by any stretch impossible.

Consideration also needs to be given to whether a ban would be disproportionate. I mentioned the rurality issue, but I want to finish on one key point. One can talk about the relative merits or otherwise of local government, and whether the London approach is the panacea that we all seek to say it is, but this is ultimately about the personal responsibility of the vehicle owner. I really want to ram home the point that, as is set out in the gospel, “do unto others as you would have done to yourself.”

[Liz Twist]

rose—

[Guy Opperman]

I will not take a further intervention. It is unquestionably the case that we need to send a strong message to the drivers of this country that it is incumbent upon them to park responsibly, to look after their neighbour, and to be conscious of the wider impacts of their decision to own a car, so that in their street and community, they are accommodating the people who are struggling.

Question put and agreed to.

Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Twist Excerpts

Thursday 8th February 2024 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Hopkins (Luton South) (Lab)]

4. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of bus services.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

8. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of bus service levels in England.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Guy Opperman)]

The Government are providing the largest public investment in buses for a generation, providing more than £4.5 billion-worth of services in England outside London since 2020, as we rebuilt post covid.

--- Later in debate ---

[Guy Opperman]

My right hon. Fried makes a very good point. This is money that the Government give to ensure that communities across a particular constituency receive support. It should not be solely focused on one area. I will take up that point and write to the local authority myself.

[Liz Twist]

Bus mileage has dropped by just 5% in London since 2010, yet astonishingly it has fallen by more than 30% in the north-east, as the Minister will know. Kim McGuinness, Labour’s candidate for North East Mayor, is keen to fix that as a priority, if elected in May. Is it not beyond time to let local communities have power and control of their own local bus services?

[Guy Opperman]

Clearly, that we are to have a regional Mayor for the North East is good news, but I did not think the hon. Lady would be celebrating the fact that she has a disastrous police and crime commissioner as her candidate and that the previously Labour Metro Mayor of North of Tyne is now running as an independent against the Labour party. However, it is without a shadow of a doubt the

“best-funded devolution deal in the country.”

Those are not my words, but those of the previously Labour Mayor. I genuinely believe we are building back better post covid, with enhanced bus company usage in circumstances where the £2 bus fare is making a huge difference.

Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Twist Excerpts

Thursday 14th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

Of the 4,000 zero-emission buses promised in the national bus strategy, only 660 have been funded outside London and half of those have gone to overseas manufacturers. What are the Government doing to help UK manufacturers develop competitive zero-emission buses capable of longer distance journeys?

[Guy Opperman]

I was delighted to meet and engage with many of the different manufacturers from the UK only two weeks ago. I look forward to discussing the matter with them in more detail.

Transport

Liz Twist Excerpts

Tuesday 7th November 2023 Ministerial Corrections

The following is an extract from Transport questions on 26 October 2023.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

The huge importance of local bus services to communities such as mine in Blaydon has been emphasised by a dispute between Go North East and its employees. I very much hope that a negotiated settlement can be reached quickly. Is not the reality that we need better, more streamlined franchising models to give communities a greater say on their transport offer?

[Mr Holden]

I am sure the hon. Lady, my neighbour, welcomed the news yesterday evening that Go North East and Unite the union have managed to reach a settlement in the north-east. That is quite good news. I am sure she will also welcome the £163.5 million that we have put into bus service improvement plans, which include the option to do bus franchising. This Government have been happy to make that available to all local authorities.

[Official Report, 26 October 2023, Vol. 738, c. 968.]

Letter of correction from the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, the hon. Member for North West Durham (Mr Holden):

An error has been identified in my response to the hon. Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist) in Transport questions. The correct response should have been:

Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Twist Excerpts

Thursday 26th October 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Harper]

I am familiar with the case that my right hon. and learned Friend raises. I was in contact with British Transport police about it after seeing the disturbing footage at the weekend. They have publicly said that a member of staff has been suspended, but he will understand that because the British Transport police are investigating whether a crime has been committed, it would not be right of me to go into details. I hope he is reassured that the incident is being taken seriously by both British Transport police and London Underground, and that that will reassure both him and the Jewish community.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

The huge importance of local bus services to communities such as mine in Blaydon has been emphasised by a dispute between Go North East and its employees. I very much hope that a negotiated settlement can be reached quickly. Is not the reality that we need better, more streamlined franchising models to give communities a greater say on their transport offer?

[Mr Holden]

I am sure the hon. Lady, my neighbour, welcomed the news yesterday evening that Go North East and Unite the union have managed to reach a settlement in the north-east. That is quite good news. I am sure she will also welcome the £163.5 million that we have put into bus service improvement plans, which include the option to do bus franchising. This Government have been happy to make that available to all local authorities.

Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Twist Excerpts

Thursday 8th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Matt Vickers (Stockton South) (Con)]

6. What steps he is taking to support bus services.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

7. What assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of trends in the number of bus services since 2019.

[Luke Hall (Thornbury and Yate) (Con)]

12. What assessment he has made of the impact of the £2 fare cap on the number of bus journeys since that cap was introduced.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Harper]

I am confident that my hon. Friend will campaign in his area to protect those bus services. The additional £300 million includes £1.5 million for the Tees Valley, which will help local transport authorities and bus operators to protect and improve their services. We expect them to work together to deliver sustainable networks. I know he will campaign strongly to ensure that a share of that extra money from Government goes to protect services to his constituents.

[Liz Twist]

In January, I was glad to hear that Transport North East’s decarbonisation bid for our bus services had been successful. I now understand that subsidy control procedures mean that none of the electric buses have yet been ordered, let alone delivered, and I fear we may run out of time under the terms of the grant or get fewer buses for our money because of inflation. We need those electric buses in the north-east, so will the Secretary of State meet me to ensure we get them on the road as soon as possible?

[Mr Harper]

I am glad that the hon. Lady gives me an opportunity to remind the House that Transport North East has been awarded £19.5 million as part of round 2 of the levelling up fund, which delivers those buses. There are some appropriate checks that must take place, and I hope she will also welcome the fact that the North East and North of Tyne Combined Authorities got £117.8 million for their bus service improvement plans to deliver better bus services for her constituents.

Buses: Funding

Liz Twist Excerpts

Wednesday 17th May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Holden]

I thank my hon. Friend for her question. She is indeed right that Kent and Medway will be getting extra support. In Medway, that amounts to over three quarters of a million pounds. Across Kent, on top of the almost £19 million it has already had from its first BSIP, the council will be getting an extra £2.3 million as a result of this announcement. On top of that, she will also see local bus operators receiving similar amounts of money, so she will see multiple millions of pounds for her local bus services. On when the cash will get paid, I will write to her directly. It will come in tranches at different stages, and I will happily lay that out in a letter to her. However, she can reassure her constituents that money is available and that cash is coming in, and that the local council as well as local operators will be able to use that money to fund the vital local services she mentioned.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

I look forward to discussing these issues in much more detail in my Adjournment debate on Government funding for local bus services this evening. The Minister will know, because we have neighbouring constituencies, how important bus services are to our constituencies and how absolutely essential it is to keep them, and he must know that this money will not be sufficient to maintain those services. This morning, the Minister claimed he was not going to pretend he can save every bus route. Can he confirm how many bus services he is willing to lose?

[Mr Holden]

I would like to thank the hon. Lady for her question, and we will be able to go into this in greater detail later. As she knows, hers was the first ever Adjournment debate I did, and I am looking forward to doing one with her again tonight. [Interruption.] Well, what has changed, despite the comments of the shadow Secretary of State, is that the north-east has already received £117 million of its £163 million of BSIP funding, and in addition it will also be benefiting today. I spoke to the leader of the hon. Lady’s council, Councillor Gannon, earlier today, before I came to the House, and talked him through the BSIP funding for the future. I would say that we obviously cannot protect every route—some routes will need to change—but the funding being delivered today will be hugely important to her and my constituents. Gateshead has had the levelling-up fund bid for more than 50 electric buses, with £100 million already and more to come with the bus service improvement plan across the north-east. Only last week, £1 bus fares were rolled out across the north-east for under-22s, thanks to the funding from the Government. That was never delivered under the last Labour Government, and I would have thought she would welcome more cash being available.

Local Bus Services: Funding

Liz Twist Excerpts

Wednesday 17th May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

I am pleased to have secured this debate on Government funding of our local bus services. Millions of people rely on bus services every day to get to work, to seek healthcare or even just to visit the shops for a day out. This affects very many parts of the country, not just my constituency of Blaydon or the north-east. The state of bus services is an issue that comes up repeatedly, particularly post covid. It matters to individuals and communities, which is why I have raised this issue in Westminster Hall, in a previous Adjournment debate and at Prime Minister’s questions. I will continue to do so in the future.

The purpose of the debate, when I applied for it, was to ask the Government to address the fundamental issue of how we move from a series of welcome but short-term funding extensions, principally through the bus recovery grant, to a more stable and long-term plan to ensure that we do not see further reductions in bus services. That plan should take us through to the introduction of bus service improvement plans and the actions needed to make positive improvements to our bus services.

We cannot afford cliff edge after cliff edge at quarterly intervals, with bus operators issuing notices of service reductions and constant uncertainty for passengers about whether or not they will get to work or college or visit family, as has been the situation recently. Funding continues be impacted by low bus patronage, which is still at less than 80%, with a particular reduction in bus pass users. I note that, in this morning’s statement, the Minister said that patronage rates were back up to 90%. That is not a figure I recognise for the north-east, having checked it.

The impact of low patronage is both reduced income to bus operators and costs for local councils, via local transport authority support to maintain those vital bus services. I think of the maintained service to Kibblesworth in my constituency, which would have lost its only bus link had our local transport authority not stepped in. Kibblesworth is only five miles from Newcastle city centre—the same distance from Westminster to Canary Wharf—but it could have been left isolated by bus operator proposals. The Minister will know of many other instances of services affected, as we share a number of bus routes through our constituencies. Buses through Blaydon run through other parts of County Durham. What a coincidence that we had an oral statement on this issue this afternoon, before this debate.

I remind the House of the practical effects of the bus reductions. Jen and Frances are two constituents who have been in touch regularly because their lives have been drastically affected by recent changes to the bus services. They have told me how they used to get on the first bus that came into the terminal to have a day out in a random area and get to know the region better. Sadly, following the recent changes, that is no longer a possibility, as cuts and short-term cancellations have left them with no confidence in the bus services matching up and taking them where they want to go.

Eleanor, a student midwife, has told my office of her difficulties getting to and from work with a reduced service, meaning that no buses are running when she starts or finishes her shift. Another constituent, an older woman, used to travel between Consett in the Minister’s constituency and Greenside in mine, changing buses in Chopwell, to visit her grandchildren. Now the bus times are so far apart, her only option is to rely on lifts or not travel at all.

For all those people, I was grateful to have the opportunity to raise those issues directly in the House on previous occasions. But problems still affect bus services all over the country. Without further intervention, they could lead to drastic cuts to services across the entire bus network. Bus companies and local authorities need to be able to plan effectively. We need proper solutions so that customers can have confidence in their bus services, and we need a plan that allows the sector to thrive and to move forward. On top of that, we need to superimpose the work to be taken forward through bus service improvement plans.

In the north-east, we have successfully bid for bus service improvement plan money. Changes are already happening in the north-east, through the work that Transport North East is doing with the bus service improvement plan funding. We were successful in a bid for £163.5 million, of which an initial £117.8 million has been received. Transport North East has begun to use that money to transform the local transport offer in the north-east. It has already implemented a £1 fare for travellers who are 21 and under, as the Minister will know, and a £3 day ticket allowing people to travel across all Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and Durham in a cost-effective manner. It is working on plans to introduce park and ride facilities, improved fares for all travellers and bus priority measures to speed up journey times and improve reliability. We know that good work is going on, but there is no getting around the fact that the Government have presided over a spiral of decline in our bus services that has failed communities.

In “Bus Back Better: national bus strategy for England”, published in 2021, the Government promised

“great bus services for everyone, everywhere”

and services

“so often that you don’t need a timetable.”

But the total number of miles driven by buses has plummeted by 175 million in the last five years, with 1,000 services lost in the last year alone. That is the context in which we received the Government’s statement earlier today, which laid out a new two-year funding settlement. So instead of continuing with my planned speech, I would like to take the opportunity to ask the Minister a series of questions about his statement.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

Before my hon. Friend moves on to her questions, can I intervene?

[Liz Twist]

Of course.

[Mrs Hodgson]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. Does she agree that, once we get the combined authority and the elected Mayor for the whole region, one of the things we might be able to do is to re-regulate the integrated transport services, as the Mayor of Manchester has done? That might be what we eventually need to do to be able to fix some of the problems we see with our bus services.

[Liz Twist]

I thank my hon. Friend for her comments. Yes, absolutely, that is the case. Although in Transport North East we have currently opted for an enhanced partnership, with the way that bus services are developing and routes are being dropped, that may well be something that we should look at in the future.

First, I note that the Minister stated that he spoke to Councillor Martin Gannon, chair of the North East Joint Transport Committee, prior to making his statement in the House this afternoon. He will be aware then of Councillor Gannon’s concerns that the amount being provided nationally to protect bus services seems to have shrunk significantly. While capped fares are welcome, they will not be much use to people if they cannot actually get on a bus in the first place, which is too often the case for many of the Minister’s constituents and mine. And once bus services are cut, it is practically impossible to get them reinstated, so I agree with Councillor Gannon.

Of course, capped fares are welcome, not least as a means of driving up bus patronage again, which in itself will sustain bus services, but will the Minister explain how the money announced this afternoon will be distributed? What is the plan after 2024, once the review mentioned in the Minister’s statement has been carried out? What criteria will be used?

What projections does the Department have for the number of services that are likely to be lost over the course of the new two-year settlement? How many of those will be in the north-east? The Minister will know—indeed, he said as much this afternoon—that that level of bus recovery grant and local transport authority support will not sustain all the bus routes we currently have. We need those bus routes. I note from his statement that the additional funding to local transport authorities will be to those that did not receive bus service improvement plan funding. Will he confirm whether that is correct? How will that affect Transport North East?

On the £140 million announced for the bus service operators grant, to be delivered over what I believe is one year and nine months, the Minister will be aware that that is not enough to maintain services at current levels, including in our region. I asked him this afternoon how many routes he would be prepared to see go. Can he confirm how that money will be allocated to bus operators and what criteria will be used to determine the distribution? How will the operators and passengers in my constituency, and indeed in his and across the north-east, be affected by the funding? How will local transport authorities be able to cover the gaps in essential services that will follow those cuts? I should make it clear that I am not here to argue the corner of private bus operators; I am here to argue for reliable, quality bus services for my constituents who rely on buses to get about.

Finally, let me ask the Minister this: do not the changes announced today leave the national bus strategy in tatters? Money that was earmarked for proposed new infrastructure, fare pricing and routes appears to have been subsumed into a plan for just keeping our bus services going, rather than a plan to make bus services a really attractive option. I am, of course, very glad that Transport North East was successful in its bid for BSIP funding, but I am disappointed that we will not now see some of the positive improvements for which we had hoped and planned.

As I have said, my constituents want to see a bold and transformed bus offer with improved reliability, improved fares and better connectivity, but I fear that the funding announcements made today will not produce that result. We need to build a plan that helps every community to move forward with reliable transport, and, as the Minister knows and as he heard earlier today, Labour has a plan to do just that. We are promising the biggest reform to the bus system in 40 years, which would put the power back where it belongs—in the hands of the communities who depend on buses the most. The Government must follow suit if they are to revive confidence in bus ridership and help to build that bold and transformational plan for the future.

I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response to my questions. I hope very much that he will note the concern that is felt for our bus services, and explain how he intends to ensure that our constituents do not lose any more vital services.

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

Let me first thank the hon. Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist) for her speech. I did not quite gather whether or not she was in favour of our plan, but I will certainly address the points that she made. She asked whether it was a coincidence that I made a statement earlier today. I think the truth is that the Government were quaking in terror at the prospect of the Adjournment debate, and she has definitely driven this forward. However, I am genuinely grateful to her for her continued work on this issue, and for pushing the Government as well. It is nice to see someone on the other side of the House and from the same area who is as passionate about buses as I am, and I congratulate her on securing a debate on an issue that is important not just to our constituents, but to many constituents throughout the country.

The hon. Lady has often mentioned the importance of local transport services, not just in Adjournment debates to which I have responded but on many other occasions in the House. I fondly remember my first appearance at the Dispatch Box as the Minister for Roads and Local Transport, responding to an Adjournment debate on bus services in her own constituency. I am therefore delighted to have the opportunity to speak this evening about the support that the Government are providing for local bus services, especially in the light of my earlier statement.

As I think every Member would acknowledge, local transport networks and local bus services in particular are vital to ensuring that communities can stay connected, to helping many industries to operate, and, more broadly, to levelling up the country by giving people access to jobs, services and leisure activities throughout the country. That has never been more important than it is now, as we see recovery from the pandemic move slowly but inexorably in the right direction. The Government have provided unprecedented levels of support for bus operators and local transport authorities to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic—a total of more than £2 billion since March 2020, initially through the covid-19 bus service support grant and then though the bus recovery grant to help protect bus services—and that exceptional support will continue until 30 June, when we will move to a new formula.

Over the last few years, when patronage has been at a fraction of pre-covid levels, with passenger numbers across the country dropping as low as 10% on average, support for the bus sector has been crucial to significantly limit service reductions. The sector used to rely on roughly 40% support from taxpayers via concessionary fares, bus service operator grants and local support, but that increased to 60% for two years as commercial revenues took a huge hit.

Long-standing support of £250 million is provided every year to bus operators and local transport authorities through the bus service operator grant, to help keep fares down and services running that might otherwise be unprofitable. That will continue, as well as supporting council spending of around £1 billion a year to allow older and disabled people to travel on buses throughout England for free. We have ensured, as we have come out of the pandemic, that local councils have continued to pass that money on; otherwise, we would have seen far more service reductions.

While patronage by fare-paying passengers has recovered significantly, it remains significantly lower for concessionary passengers. There has been a strong recovery overall, though, in bus passenger numbers compared with some of the other public transport sectors. The London underground network, for example, is at roughly three quarters of where it was before. We have to accept, however, that travel patterns have changed to some degree since the pandemic, altered by emerging societal norms such as online shopping. It is therefore right that local bus networks adapt, but, as I made clear in my statement to the House earlier, the Government will not let our bus services fall by the wayside as this transition occurs.

We have always been clear—and I think the hon. Lady and I agree—that the cycle of short-term Government funding to prop up the sector is not sustainable for bus operators, local transport authorities or, most importantly, taxpayers and the travelling public. That is why the Government have taken action to deliver a longer-term approach that will ensure that we no longer talk about the sector’s recovery from the pandemic, but instead move on to its renewal.

I therefore confirm that the bus recovery grant will end as planned on 30 June. In its place we will provide approximately £300 million of new funding from June 2023 to April 2025 to help protect and maintain bus services and ultimately to deliver improved services for passengers. Of that funding, £160 million has been earmarked for local transport authorities through the BSIP+ mechanism, ensuring that local decision makers have the resources they need to work with bus operators to deliver better bus services for passengers, which is the central aim of the Government’s strategy.

That funding is in addition to the £1 billion allocated to 34 local areas to deliver bus service improvement plans, including £163 million for the North East and North of Tyne combined authorities, which will benefit the hon. Lady’s and my constituents. Some of those plans are already kicking in, as we saw a few days ago with the £1 single bus fare for the under-22s, which I am delighted that the Government have been able to support. The north-east plan is the biggest to have been funded in England—bigger than those of Greater Manchester or the west midlands. When the Government first awarded funding to help local areas to deliver their bus service improvement plans, we were unable to provide funding for all English local transport authorities outside London. In deciding how we should allocate additional funding under the BSIP+ mechanism, we have focused on local transport authorities that did not have large BSIP allocations. The remaining £140 million from that further package of investment in the bus sector will be provided directly to bus operators through our BSOG+ mechanism. This will benefit our area directly, because it will affect everybody in the country.

The package of funding that we have announced today will help to ensure that local communities who rely on their local bus services to live, work and travel can continue to stay connected and access the opportunities they need. We will be laying out more details of exactly how that will work. It is slightly different from the old BSOG, acknowledging that the pressures have been on rural and suburban areas, including pit villages in the hon. Lady’s and my constituencies, as well as on urban services. There is a slight change, and I will publish more information in the near future on the funding that individual areas will receive. Today we have given some allocative funding indications on the local authority side through BSIP+. BSOG+ is slightly different because there is so much more complexity when it comes to individual operators, but I will make that public as soon as possible because operators such as Go North East, which operates in both our constituencies, are keen to know.

Whether people are travelling to school, work or the shops, this Government are committed to helping them get around, and we know how important local buses are to delivering on our priorities in growing the economy. Today’s positive news is about the long-term support for which the sector has been asking, as the support for local authorities and bus companies will not end. Members who followed today’s statement closely, as I know the hon. Lady did, will know that we are extending the popular “Get Around for £2” bus fare cap. The scheme was introduced at the start of the year both as a cost of living measure and to promote bus services. It is showing positive signs of increased bus usage, with a recent Transport Focus survey of more than 1,000 people reporting that 11% of respondents are using buses more as a result of the cap. The scheme is also helping people to save on their regular travel costs, with the same survey showing that around 80% of respondents agree the fare cap will help people with the cost of living.

On a recent trip to Reed in Partnership in my North West Durham constituency, I was particularly struck that not only were the staff directly benefiting from the fare cap when travelling into Consett but the £2 cap was enabling long-term jobseekers to travel further. The £8 journey from Newcastle to Middlesbrough is currently capped at £2, so people can travel much further for much less outlay, helping them to reach jobs and opportunities beyond their local area without incurring significant extra costs. The cap was due to end on 30 June, but I am pleased to confirm again that it will now be extended to 31 October. To create long-term certainty on fares for passengers and operators alike, we will be introducing a £2.50 fare cap from 1 November 2023 until 30 November 2024, at which point we will review bus fares to support the sector in moving to a sustainable long-term footing.

We saw an increase in bus routes during the scheme’s first three months, from around 3,700 to 4,000. Around 95% of operators are currently taking part, and I hope to get closer to 100% now that it is a long-term scheme. I am grateful to the operators for working with us on the scheme, and I look forward to working with them over the next year and a half. My officials will work to confirm operators’ participation in the scheme as we continue to deliver measures that help passengers to save money, that encourage people to travel by bus and that help to grow the economy. This is just one of three schemes on road, rail and buses. With 5p off a litre for cars, vans and motorbikes, with this support for buses and with significantly below-inflation rail fare rises, we are doing what we can across the transport piece to help people with the cost of living.

The hon. Lady made a broadly cross-party speech, but it is not fair to suggest that the national bus strategy is in tatters. When the scheme was announced in 2019-20, the Government committed to spending £3 billion on the sector. Today’s announcement takes that up to £3.5 billion, which is a huge quantity of money to support the sector through what has been an incredibly difficult time. On the BSOG, I am happy to outline these things in more detail. On money distribution, the BSIP+ indicative numbers will be on the Government website within the next couple of days, if they are not there already. The hon. Lady raised an important question: what will happen to that post-2024? As I said in my speech, we will be looking at that in the long term.

As for projections of bus service numbers, we will have to see how the sector responds to the big announcements we have made today, particularly now we are securing money for the long term. On the north-east, with more than £163 million—more than £117 million of which has already been confirmed—I hope we will not need to see the reductions in bus services that she mentioned. We should, we hope, be able to see more services made available, given the extra cash provided for the area, again in a multi-year settlement. I hope to see more of the great things that were part of that plan brought forward in the near future, as we have seen in the past few years with the £1 fare and the £3 daily fare cap for under-22s.

[Liz Twist]

I want to press the Minister on this point about the BSIP. We all had great hopes about developments that we could make with that money. We can argue all day about the money, but a lot of us think that more money was promised at the start than has been available—nevertheless, it is there. But there is a concern that more of that money will go in preserving current services, in effect, at a higher cost, as local transport authorities have to put out the bids to run services. That was not allowed in the original BSIP. Is it correct to assume that it is allowed under this system?

[Mr Holden]

I do not want a situation where we are trying to play around with services in local areas; I want us to be flexible on the BSIP, at a time when there is huge pressure on bus services, particularly following the pandemic and the way they have recovered since. I am willing to speak to all transport authorities. Many may wish to modernise their schemes because of people’s changing travel patterns, for example. I will not hold a gun to their head and make them waste taxpayers money on things that will not achieve what they originally planned in their BSIP before the pandemic—that would be insane. I am definitely up for modernisation of some of their plans, but they will have to go through the Department, proper scrutiny procedures and officials. Equally, I do not want to hold people to plans that may no longer be viable.

Having said that, the hon. Lady can see from what we have done in the past few days, with that £1 fare, that some of the plans that we had at the start of the BSIP are coming through. I do not want to put handcuffs on local transport authorities that ask me whether they can tweak a scheme this way or that. I do not want to say that we will never listen to them and they must stick to what they had. That would not be a responsible use of taxpayers’ cash, and as a former member of the Public Accounts Committee, I would certainly call that into question.

[Liz Twist]

On that precise point, of course we want to see plans for our buses, for the infrastructure and for the services themselves—plans that are relevant today because it is 18 months since the original proposals were made. What we also want to see is the whole aim of that plan, which was to make a shift change in bus services for the future, so that our constituents, and people across the country, can step out of their front door and know that they will be able to get a bus and that the bus will be reliable.

[Mr Holden]

The hon. Lady and I are talking the same language. We both want to see improvements and, as we have said multiple times in this debate, one improvement that we have already seen is that lower fare. I hope to see further such things as we go through the plan, which will help to drive service improvements and to drive people on to the buses. Things may have changed in different areas over the past few years and we may have to make some tweaks but, again, I do not want to put a total straitjacket on authorities across the country.

Finally, let me reflect on a few of the hon. Lady’s points, which I thought were quite bold. She and the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson) said that Labour had a plan for bus services, which I thought was stretching it a bit. A plan requires cash, long-term funding and knowing what to do with it. Just saying that they might open up the scheme to municipal operators is not a plan, but an ideological step. I am not against municipal bus companies. We have them across the country, including in some Conservative local authorities and in some Conservative constituencies. I am not against looking at those in the future, as the Transport Committee recommended.

However, during the statement earlier today one Cornish Member mentioned how their enhanced partnership had driven up bus usage—probably better than anywhere else in the country—without having a franchise model. If we flip it and look at what has happened in London, we see that the figures are lower than the average in the rest of England with a franchise model. The taxpayer has to bear that risk. I am not sure whether a totally state-controlled, state-delivered, nationalised approach is always the right answer. That is all I will say to the hon. Lady on that. I am not against it in certain areas. Obviously, in certain areas the Government are working with local authorities to deliver franchising, but that is not a plan; that is an ideological end point. It does not have consumers, bus users and taxpayers at its core, as we can see from the way the Welsh Government have dealt with buses over the past two decades since they have been in office.

[Liz Twist]

rose—

[Mr Holden]

I am sorry but I will not take another intervention.

In closing, I again congratulate the hon. Lady on securing the debate. I hope that she will agree that the announcement the Government have made today, building on the £2 billion of bus support that we have already provided since March 2020—taking it to £3.5 billion overall—not only to protect bus services but, with our bus service improvement plan, to enhance them, demonstrates our commitment to support the sector and to address the challenges it faces now and well into the future. I thank hon. Members for their contributions today. I look forward to discussing this further with Members in the coming months as the Government seek to deliver on our ambition for everyone everywhere to have access to affordable and reliable bus services.

Question put and agreed to.

Pavement Parking

Liz Twist Excerpts

Monday 13th March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Afzal Khan]

I agree. That is exactly the point I will make: we need to move forward, because we should not be still waiting. What is good enough for London is surely good enough for the rest of the UK.

In 2020, the Government held a consultation called “Pavement parking: options for change”. There have been written questions on when we can expect the outcome of the consultation; the response every time is “As soon as possible.” We are now on our fifth responsible Minister since the consultation closed. Government instability aside, surely the Minister agrees that two years, three months and 19 days is more than enough time to prepare a response. I hope he will be able to make “as soon as possible” mean sooner rather than later.

PATROL, a joint committee of local authorities—the name stands for Parking and Traffic Regulations Outside London—points out that it is a misconception that all pavement parking is currently legal outside London. The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 make it clear that causing “unnecessary obstruction” of the highway by a stationary vehicle is a criminal offence. However, because it is a criminal offence, only the police have the power to issue penalty notices. The truth is that this is not a priority for the police and, to be honest, I do not blame them for that. After all, since 2011, Greater Manchester police have seen real-terms cuts of more than £215 million, with 2,000 fewer officers. They simply do not have the capacity. The current law is also ambiguous. The word “unnecessary” is subjective and leads to significant confusion among drivers: a study by YouGov found that 46% of them were confused by current laws.

The real difference between London and the rest of England lies in the fact that the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1974 created an unambiguous offence which authorities are confident to enforce and which, moreover, is also enforceable by local councils, rather than just the police. There is widespread agreement that we must bring the rest of England into line with London.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

My first Adjournment debate in the Chamber was about the issue of pavement parking. We were told that there would be a response very soon. Is it not now essential, for the sake of people such as Laurel, a blind constituent of mine who has a guide dog, for these laws to be introduced?

[Afzal Khan]

I entirely agree.

While it is already possible for councils to issue a traffic regulation order, there are drawbacks to the process which make it not only an unsustainable option for local authorities, but one that is unlikely to drive widespread behavioural change. The cost of permanent TROs can be astronomical. There is a clear need for a separate review of TROs to bring the process into the 21st century. They are rightly only enforceable when clearly signed, but that is yet another expense, and the overall cost makes them suitable only for a narrow and targeted approach. It would never be possible to create a TRO preventing pavement parking covering the entire city of Manchester, for example. If an order is applied to just one small area, the problem may shift to a nearby area without changing driver behaviour.

What is needed is a national approach that sets an expectation for all drivers everywhere. One way of achieving that would be to amend the Traffic Management Act 2004 to add obstruction to the list of offences to which civil enforcement applies. This would be imperfect, but would allow local authorities to issue fines, and would give councils outside London the first ingredient in the recipe that their counterparts in the capital enjoy: the power to enforce. We would also need a second ingredient, a lack of ambiguity. However, there should be very few circumstances in which obstructing the pavement is necessary, and we must set clear expectations on that to change driver behaviour.

A step beyond would be the introduction of a default ban on pavement parking across England through primary legislation, which is the approach now being taken by Scotland. The main benefit would be the creation of a simple, uniform and easily understood system, allowing for exceptions to suit local circumstances. I appreciate that that might take more time, which is why I hope the Government might make use of intermediate options now to begin to tackle the issue as soon as possible.

Any of these options will need to be accompanied by more resources: resources for national and local information campaigns on how the law is changing, and resources for local authorities for the purpose of enforcement. Only by doing both can we change behaviour for the better, and we cannot expect local authorities to foot the bill when they have already faced millions of pounds of cuts forced on them by Conservative and Lib Dem Governments since 2010.

There is a clear and widespread desire for change across the country. We must do better to make our streets usable for people walking or wheeling, and create an environment that is for the many, not the few. That will mean more people on foot, on bikes and on public transport, fewer cars and healthier, cleaner air.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Holden]

I cannot speculate on what is going to be in the Budget, and I would urge hon. Members to wait and see what is going to happen later in the week. What I would say is that we have placed huge emphasis on this area already, with major investment going on across the country, and we expect to spend around £850 million by the end of this year, which is a record amount of funding. That represents a step change from previous Governments and Administrations of all colours in this space, and I expect to see that continue.

Recently in Parliament, I met Matthew Campbell-Hill, the new Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee chairman, and Cameron Wood, a constituent of the Minister of State, Department for Transport, my right hon. Friend the Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire (Jesse Norman), who are both actively campaigning on this issue. They highlighted to me, as has happened in other recent meetings I have had in Parliament, the real issues that pavement parking can cause for pedestrians and people with buggies and prams, but particularly for disabled people with sight or mobility impairments. This is an issue I have been campaigning on in my own constituency as well, where the blind community is particularly prominent in the town of Dipton.

Pavement parking has been prohibited in London since 1974, except where councils choose to permit it by implementing exemptions and erecting the necessary traffic signs. There is no specific ban outside London, but councils can implement local pavement parking prohibitions through traffic regulation orders, as well as prescribed traffic signs and bay markings. It is also the case that waiting restrictions such as yellow lines can apply to pavements as well as to the carriageway.

The Transport Committee reported on pavement parking in September 2019, with the key recommendation that the Government bring forward proposals to reform the TRO process to make it cheaper and easier for local authorities to use. Having seen it myself, I know that the process clearly needs reform. The Committee also recommended that the Government consult on a new civilly enforceable offence of obstructive pavement parking, and that we legislate across England, outside London, to address this issue more broadly.

Although successive Governments have recognised that there is no perfect solution to this difficult problem, the Government believed in 2020 that it was time to look again at the issue in detail. I am delighted to say that we had over 15,000 responses to the consultation, and each respondent was given the chance to answer up to 15 questions, providing tens of thousands of pieces of feedback and information, all of which needed to be read and analysed. Although I do not think I can please the hon. Gentleman as much as I would like by saying that we will imminently publish our formal response to the consultation, it is a very real and complex problem that we are looking to address at the earliest opportunity. I am actively working on this inside the Department.

At the moment, there are inherent dangers for all pedestrians from pavement parking, including being forced on to the carriageway. This is an issue faced by many disabled people, particularly those using motorised chairs when there are no dropped kerbs, resulting in further damage to pavements, which is a trip hazard. Maintenance is also a burden for local authorities and local taxpayers.

It also needs to be recognised that many towns and cities like ours were not designed to accommodate today’s traffic levels, or indeed cars per se. In some locations, particularly our narrower terraced streets, the pavement is the only place to park without obstructing the carriageway and so allow the free flow of traffic, including for emergency services.

All the measures on which we consulted have challenges in respect of efficacy and deliverability, and we want to take the right steps for future policy. Existing legislation allows local authorities to introduce TROs to manage traffic, and it allows them the freedom to decide what they wish to do at a local level. As the hon. Gentleman said, however, the process is time-consuming and burdensome. We recognise that it has to be reformed, as it is hugely important, and the Department is committed to doing that.

Removing bureaucracy and digitalising a costly, paper-based system is desperately needed to help speed up applications and the process more broadly. This will make it quicker and cheaper for local authorities to implement TROs. We need to reduce the average wait time of six months, which is far too burdensome and bureaucratic. At the moment it takes 12 weeks even for temporary TROs. We estimate that this could easily be reduced by a third, with resultant savings in both administrative costs and time. Digitalised TROs will also provide accurate digital data on how our roads operate, which will be needed to support autonomous vehicles in the longer term, and they will help to provide accurate information to road users in the shorter term. We are actively looking at this at the moment.

The hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton also mentioned the second recommendation on the offence of unnecessary obstruction of the road. I agree with him and other hon. Members that this is a broad and not well understood area of law. The offence includes the carriageway, verges and pavement, and it already exists as a criminal offence. We could amend the regulations to make unnecessary obstruction of the pavement enforceable by local authorities, while leaving obstruction of the carriageway as a criminal matter. That would enable civil enforcement officers to address instances of unnecessarily obstructive pavement parking, as and when they find it. Enforcement against this offence would be more targeted than a general prohibition of pavement parking. This would allow egregious cases to be addressed while not penalising motorists where pavement parking is the only option, and where it is safe for pedestrians and other road users. This could be implemented relatively quickly, as it would require only secondary legislation. Through this approach, pavement parking would not become a general offence, so local authorities would not need to conduct costly and time-consuming audits of their road networks, nor would it be necessary to place traffic signs and bay markings to indicate where pavement parking was still permitted.

However, there is a challenge with this option. Parking offences currently subject to local authority civil enforcement are violations of clearly defined restrictions indicated by traffic signs and road markings, such as yellow lines or white bay markings. By contrast, unnecessary obstruction could not be indicated by traffic signs or bay markings, as “obstruction” is a general offence that may occur anywhere. As the hon. Gentleman mentioned, “unnecessary obstruction” is also difficult to define. It would require case-by-case assessment and the Department would likely need to issue properly extensive guidance to steer local authorities in the right way as to what might be deemed unnecessary obstruction, in order to prevent inappropriate and inconsistent enforcement. Any such inconsistency would also ensure that our mailbags were overflowing with correspondence from people rightly concerned about that issue.

The third option, which we have also consulted on, is a national prohibition, extending the London arrangements to the rest of the country or making local authorities able to implement this as they see fit. That option would establish a general rule against pavement parking except where there is a specific permission of a local authority, or vice versa. I think we would all agree that motorists would also benefit from a consistent rule in this space. That option would need a significant implementation period. Furthermore, it would require primary legislation, as the hon. Gentleman noted. Local authorities would need to audit their road networks to decide where pavement parking remained necessary, implement the necessary exemptions, and place traffic signs and bay markings to indicate all the places where pavement parking was to be permitted—or vice-versa, depending on which route we went down.

Consideration also needs to be given to whether it would be disproportionate to ban pavement parking across the whole country. For example, in rural areas the scale of the road network would mean that the costs of implementing a national ban in this way would be higher, while the issues caused by pavement parking are often likely to be lower, especially on verges in some rural communities. This is a complex area and it is only right that we are thorough in taking our time to consider it.

[Liz Twist]

The Minister has explained clearly the difficulties with different schemes. Are the Government intending to come forward with any proposals to help my constituents and others who have the difficulties in coping with pavement parking?

[Mr Holden]

The hon. Lady rightly presses me on this point. There are things I am actively considering in this area, and these are interim steps. Primary legislation is a long-term aim in this area, but there are certainly things we can do in the interim and things I hope to bring forward in the not-too-distant future.

Overall, local authorities are clearly in the best position to decide where pavement parking should or should not be permitted in their local areas, especially outside London, which is an urban conurbation. It is the Department’s role to ensure they have appropriate and effective tools to prohibit pavement parking where desired. I am fully aware that the Department’s response to the consultation is eagerly awaited, as has been made clear by hon. Members today. Although I cannot pre-empt publication of the Department’s consultation response, I am actively working on this, not just on the primary legislation, but on other measures that could be put in place in the interim period. All the options have challenges in respect of efficacy and deliverability, and it is our job to weigh up all of that and take the right steps forward. We are working through the options and the possible legislative opportunities for delivering them, and as soon as those matters are certain, we will publish the formal response. Although I cannot say this evening exactly when that will be, and I am sorry to let the hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton and others down on that, I assure them that this matter is receiving our full consideration. It is a priority for us and we are aiming to publish as soon as is practically possible.

Question put and agreed to.