Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Department for Transport

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts
Thursday 12th March 2020

(4 years, 10 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Grant Shapps Portrait Grant Shapps
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I am surprised that the figure 5 with “billion” after it did not answer the hon. Gentleman’s question. We are not just paying lip service; we are doing it. What he does not seem to understand about building roads is that buses run on them.

Philip Hollobone Portrait Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
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Of the £250 million in direct revenue support for bus operators, just £43 million goes to local councils outside London. We are going to need a lot more than that if we are going to reinstate local bus services in rural areas, aren’t we?

Grant Shapps Portrait Grant Shapps
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My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and that is where the £5 billion national bus strategy, which we will be publishing shortly, comes in. Our aim is quite simply to get to a London standard of service throughout the country, including in rural areas and his constituency.