Oral Answers to Questions

Mohammad Yasin Excerpts

Thursday 3rd February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Trudy Harrison]

I would like to stress that that advice is only on narrow roads, but I am delighted that my right hon. Friend has embraced cycling, because we want to see half of the journeys made in towns and cities walked or cycled by 2030.

[Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)]

19. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for bus service improvement plans.

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

At the Budget, we announced £1.2 billion of new dedicated funding for bus transformation deals. We will provide details of indicative allocations in due course.

[Mohammad Yasin]

Bus companies have suffered financially during the pandemic, and this cost is being felt by customers in downgraded services. Stagecoach has had to replace its coaches from Bedford to Cambridge with double-decker buses with no toilet facilities. This leaves older people, sometimes travelling to access medical treatment, without access to a toilet for 90 minutes. When will the Government give bus companies the investment they need to improve services?

[Robert Courts]

Well, we are doing that at the moment. There is £1.2 billion of new funding, delivering improvements in bus services, fares and infrastructure in England outside London, and that is just part of over £3 billion of new spend on buses in the course of this Parliament.