Oral Answers to Questions

Mel Stride Excerpts

Thursday 7th November 2013 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Mel Stride (Central Devon) (Con)]

1. What progress his Department has made on the roll-out of better bus areas.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Robert Goodwill)]

Last year we announced our intention to establish a small number of new better bus areas, within which bus subsidy would be devolved to the local authority to invest in bus improvement measures in partnership with local operators. The Department has made good progress with five new better bus areas having been announced this year. These are in Sheffield, York, the west of England—the area centred around Bath and Bristol—Merseyside and Nottingham.

[Mel Stride]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on the speed with which this new scheme has been rolled out, but may I urge him to ensure we have fair and firm targeting, particularly on remote rural areas? I have a number of villages in my constituency that have no bus service at all, and many that do have very little provision.

[Mr Goodwill]

Earlier this year we announced that current levels of Government support for buses will be maintained until at least 2016, and we have also ring-fenced a portion of bus subsidy that will be devolved to local authorities from January, providing greater security to vital local services. In addition, in 2011-12 a total of £20 million in funding was targeted to rural authorities to support those very vital community transport solutions.