Transport Infrastructure: Warrington
Richard Holden Excerpts(1 year, 5 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Richard Holden)
It is always a delight to respond to my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington South (Andy Carter). He is a persistent campaigner on behalf of the people of Warrington South and the broader local community. I congratulate him on again securing an Adjournment debate and on speaking so passionately about the issues that affect his constituents in Warrington. Without doubt, he is an absolute local champion for the area. It is great to hear him acknowledge the championing of his community by my Department and the huge amounts of investment that we have made. I might even put him in touch with my communications team at the Department for Transport to see whether he can give us some pointers on how we can ensure that this Conservative Government get the credit for the tens of millions of pounds of investment that have been ploughed into his area.
I am particularly grateful for the opportunity to discuss transport in Warrington today. This Government understand the importance of transport to people and businesses, as it powers local economies across our country. Our levelling up White Paper, published last year, set out our plan to transform the UK by spreading opportunity and prosperity across the country, and bringing left-behind communities up to the level of more prosperous places. Transport is vital to achieve that end. It improves access to jobs and services, changes business location decisions, and helps to restore pride across our country. That is why we are investing in both local transport and major infrastructure projects to improve connections across our country.
I will touch on some of the investment in Warrington that my hon. Friend mentioned. This is one of the largest investments in any town by this Conservative Government. We have committed more than £16 million in the bus service improvement plan to supercharge the local bus network; £21.4 million in zero emission bus regional area funding to transition local operator Warrington’s Own Buses entire bus fleet to zero emission—I was delighted to visit the area in February to highlight some of that investment; and £10 million to develop the full business case for the Warrington western link road scheme—overall, we have made a conditional commitment of up to £142.5 million to deliver that scheme, subject to final approval. There has also been an allocation this financial year of £5.5 million to help Warrington support highways maintenance, pothole repairs and local transport measures; an additional £709,000 was announced this year at the spring Budget for pothole repairs.
Warrington has benefited more broadly from many different transport schemes, including the big plans that we have to transform rail across the north. In November 2021, we committed in our integrated rail plan to a £96 billion programme that will transform rail services across the north and the midlands. It is the single biggest rail investment ever made by a UK Government. This includes a Northern Powerhouse Rail network running from Liverpool to York and Newcastle, via Warrington; a commitment to a new high-speed line between Warrington, Manchester and Yorkshire; reinstatement of the Warrington Bank Quay station as a low-level station; and upgrading and electrifying existing lines between Warrington and Liverpool. Warrington Bank Quay station, in my hon Friend’s constituency, will also get direct benefits from the HS2-NPR connection there, including better regional services and better services into London. In addition, development opportunities in Warrington, including sites close to Warrington Bank Quay station, will be an attractive draw for local investment when combined with the connectivity improvements that we are planning. That builds on an over £1 billion investment, completed in 2019, that upgraded and electrified many railway lines across the north-west.
Let me turn to some of my hon. Friend’s specific points, particularly in relation to the Manchester ship canal and, importantly, the three swing bridges that serve the town centre. Warrington is a nexus of road, rail and waterways—historic waterways and crossings that echo the glorious industrial heritage of the region, which we both hail from. By its nature, it is an intricate network, and I understand just how disruptive it can be to communities when key arteries are out of action. The three bridges in question, owned and operated by Peel Ports, have served the town for over 130 years and, as my hon. Friend stated, are clearly in need of complete refurbishment. Recognising the dual purpose that the bridges serve—access for the local community and access along the Manchester ship canal for shipping—there will inevitably and regrettably be disruption that needs to be planned for and managed. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his efforts to date.
On the matter of managing the impact of that disruption to the local highway network, it is for the local highway authority, Warrington Borough Council, to assess the needs of the local community, including residents, visitors and businesses, and to weigh up the options. I recognise that the bridges are outwith the local authority’s direct control. It is therefore vital that the local authority and Peel Ports work together as closely as possible to manage any disruption caused by the works. I understand that discussions between the local authority and Peel are ongoing, and I hope that a reasonable solution can be found so that the whole local community can benefit. I hope that they hear my hon. Friend’s plea today. I know that he will continue to campaign hard for something that both Peel and his local authority can come together on.
In order to help local authorities to plan effectively for managing their roads and to improve asset management, the Government have moved to a three-year funding settlement for local highway maintenance, amounting to approximately £915 million of capital funding per year. That funding covers us all the way through to 2024-25, and is some of the money that I hope the local authority might be able to use locally. Warrington Borough Council is receiving around £5.5 million of it this year, on top of the £709,000 in the Budget. It will be for Warrington to determine which aspects of its highways maintenance programme it wishes to prioritise. The council may want to look at how it can use some of its money, potentially working with Peel Ports, to look at the issues that my hon. Friend raises.
Turning to the support for local bus services, Warrington is rightly proud of its bus network, and the Government recognise the importance of local bus networks to ensure that communities can stay fully connected. We have provided over £2 billion across the country since the pandemic to help mitigate the impacts of the coronavirus, most recently through the bus recovery grant, which Warrington, along with most local transport authorities, benefited from. In May we announced a long-term approach to support and improve bus services, with an additional £300 million to support services right up until April 2025. That will be made up of two elements: £160 million provided to local transport authorities, including Warrington, through a bus service improvement plan plus mechanism; and £140 million provided to operators through the bus service operators grant plus. Given that Warrington operates its own buses, that BSOG will come directly to it. The flexibility for Warrington around the £16.2 million of BSIP funding that it received has, I think, been welcomed by all.
I must be clear that responsibility for the maintenance and care of bridge and road—particularly in a case such as this, where a road crosses a waterway and has commercial implications, and implications for local businesses and commuters—must fall to local parties to manage. I commend my hon. Friend on his efforts to resolve this locally. I will say a little more on that at the end.
On the Warburton toll bridge crossing, I am very much aware of the issues that he mentioned. The inspector’s report into the proposed Rixton and Warburton toll increase was received by the Department for Transport on 13 July. The report and all the documentation pertaining to the proposals will be assessed, with a decision issued in due course. I assure my hon. Friend, in answer to his question, that the inspector will look very carefully at its implications for local people.
As my hon. Friend knows, Warrington has been progressing the Warrington western link road scheme for potential Government funding as a large local major scheme. This scheme would provide a new 3.2 km link road in west Warrington, including a new high-level bridge over the Manchester ship canal, which people have been campaigning for, as my hon. Friend says, for a very long time. It would also look at other bridges, including over the Mersey, to better connect north and south Warrington and help to reduce the reliance on the swing bridges that were the focus of his speech.
In 2019 the Government made a conditional commitment of up to £142.5 million towards delivery of the scheme, bringing it into the large local majors programme, subject of course to an outline business case. That approval would come after the approval by my Department of a full business case for the scheme.
At the time, as my hon. Friend said, the total scheme costs were estimated at £210 million, with the council contributing £68 million and the Department for Transport £142.5 million. As I have already mentioned, £10 million has already been provided directly by the Department towards the development of that final business case. The council has informed my officials of the challenges that the scheme now faces from cost increases as a result of inflation—I understand that the potential funding gap has now reached about £57 million.
I am of course sympathetic to the challenges that local authorities face. I understand that my officials have asked the council for information from recent business case development for the scheme, to better understand the position and whether the strategic case for the scheme has been strengthened, including perhaps by some of the issues my hon. Friend raised in relation to the swing bridges.
However, I need to be clear that my Department’s policy for any scheme on the MRN/LLM programme—major roads network and large local majors—is that the potential funding contribution is capped at the point of the outline business case. However, we are continually willing to look at that, and I look forward to further conversations between my Department and the council to see whether the business case can be strengthened.
In answer to my hon. Friend’s question about the Manchester ship canal, we are always willing to look at historical issues and legislation. I urge him to write to me about it in detail so that I can give him a properly detailed response. Given that it is a piece of Victorian legislation, it would need to be looked at it in depth, due to the intricacies that it will involve and the many other pieces of legislation that will interact with it across Government.
In closing, I thank my hon. Friend again for securing this debate. I hope that I have reassured him and the House of the Government’s commitment to transport infrastructure in Warrington—not in words, but in the tens of millions of pounds that have already been provided, the more than £140 million that has already been ringfenced for the western link road and the huge investment in the rail network. I look forward to working with him on future plans and developments for Warrington, and I am sure that both Peel Ports and the local authority have heard his voice strongly, calling for them to come together and find a solution for his constituents and for Warrington. I congratulate him, as ever, on speaking up on behalf of Warrington in this House.
Question put and agreed to.
Transport
Richard Holden Excerpts(1 year, 5 months ago)
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Grahame Morris (Easington) (Lab)
Can I ask the roads Minister about the lower Thames crossing project? In particular, what steps is the DFT taking to ensure that companies such as Murphy Group respect basic workers’ rights to join a trade union when bidding for major transport contracts?
Mr Holden
The Minister of State, Department for Transport, my right hon. Friend the Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire (Jesse Norman), who is the Minister for the future of transport, met Murphy Group this week.
[Official Report, 13 July 2023, Vol. 736, c. 491.]
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 Easington (Grahame Morris).
The correct response should have been:
Oral Answers to Questions
Richard Holden Excerpts(1 year, 5 months ago)
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Mr Mark Francois (Rayleigh and Wickford) (Con)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Richard Holden)
Roadworks are essential to ensure the safety and integrity of England’s highway network, and it is also essential that utility companies can install and repair the equipment on which we all rely. Some disruption is inevitable, but the Government have introduced several initiatives, such as Street Manager, to reduce that. Another tool, lane rental schemes, allows local highway authorities to charge works promoters for the time that street works and roadworks occupy the highway. Charges are focused on the very busiest streets at the busiest times, with the aim of reducing congestion.
Nicola Richards
The west midlands has great transport connectivity, but we are particularly vulnerable to congestion caused by roadworks. The works to replace the central barrier on a 7.5-mile stretch of the M42 are causing delays to my constituents and many others across the region. That work is clearly important, but it is vital that we minimise disruption. Please can the Minister outline what steps have been taken to ensure that these works are completed as soon as possible?
Mr Holden
I thank my hon. Friend for her question. I was in the west midlands just a couple of weeks ago visiting the RAC just off the M42. The scheme between junctions 3 and 4 to replace the barrier will provide increased safety to drivers, which remains our top priority. Once completed, the new barrier will require significantly less maintenance and repair after incidents, which will further reduce disruption for her constituents. To minimise disruption, National Highways has endeavoured to keep all lanes open to traffic and is utilising the longer daytime hours and good weather to complete the works as quickly as possible for her constituents.
Mr Francois
I thank the Minister for personally endorsing my “Can the cones” campaign and my associated Roadworks (Regulation) Bill, which has its Second Reading in November. One great frustration of modern life is spending ages crawling through a set of traffic lights at a contraflow to finally drive past a large hole in the road, immaculately coned off with no one doing any work on it. The Bill is designed to make it much more difficult for that to happen. Does the Minister have any good news at all that might help all of us in our constituencies to can the cones?
Mr Holden
I thank my right hon. Friend for his excellent and continued work in this area, alongside his colleagues in Chelmsford, Southend and elsewhere in Essex. I am particularly pleased to see that he has already managed to persuade Essex County Council to move ahead with a lane rental scheme, and his regulatory reform suggestions are being considered by the Department. I hope to be able to update the House later in the year, because the progress that he has suggested is directly feeding into the Government’s general policy.
Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)
Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Richard Holden)
Our policy has been to support the introduction of zero-emission buses, which will reduce emissions, support manufacturing and improve the passenger experience. The Government are committed to supporting the introduction of 4,000 zero-emission buses and achieving an all zero-emission bus fleet across the UK. I am pleased to inform the House that since February 2020, an estimated 4,200 zero-emission buses have been funded across the UK, including Scotland, of which 1,600 are on the road.
Christine Jardine
Lothian Buses, which covers my constituency, has removed 15,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from its footprint, including by introducing several electric buses. Together with the tram and the low-emission zone, that is helping to reduce pollution, particularly in Corstorphine, which has one of the worst air pollution records in the country. Would the Government consider giving all local authorities greater powers and resources to franchise bus services and simplify the application system, to reverse the ban on local services setting up their own companies? How will the Government improve the measures already mentioned and introduced, as we fight to tackle what is still 25% of the pollution that we face every day?
Mr Holden
I thank the hon. Lady for her multiple questions. The Government have committed to look into municipal buses by the end of the Parliament. On devolution, we are happy to work with local authorities right across England and Wales on devolution settlements and what more can be done. I was delighted to visit Lothian Buses to see its fantastic red, white and gold livery right across the streets of Edinburgh and the wider region. I saw the excellent work it is doing on the ground, not just on local bus service provision but being a responsive service to the local community she represents.
Paul Bristow (Peterborough) (Con)
Low-emission bus rollout in Cambridgeshire is going good guns but, sadly, all in Cambridge. At the same time, the 36 bus, which connects the village of Thorney with Eye and Peterborough, will be axed by Stagecoach at the end of the month. So many people rely on that service in Thorney to go to doctor’s appointments, see family and friends and go shopping. Shockingly, the combined authority Mayor has known about the axing since May and has done nothing—squat. Can the Minister think of a better way to spend the millions given to the Mayor for bus rollout and to save the 36 bus for all those people who rely on it?
Mr Holden
My hon. Friend is a massive champion for his constituents across Peterborough. The 36 bus is clearly a vital local link. I encourage him to have those conversations with the combined authority Mayor. We have made the bus service improvement plan flexible to protect services. I will make representations to that end on his behalf. Hopefully, he and the Mayor can come to an arrangement to ensure that all the funding we have put into that combined authority area really benefits the people of Peterborough.
Simon Lightwood (Wakefield) (Lab/Co-op)
The Government’s commitment to deliver 4,000 zero-emission buses by the end of the Parliament lies in tatters and is in the realms of fantasy. No creative counting can hide the fact that there are still only six buses funded through the zero emission bus regional areas scheme on the roads. Will the Minister come clean with Parliament and passengers, and admit that the Government will fail in spectacular style in their promise to deliver those 4,000 zero-emission buses on the road? Will the Minister also take the opportunity to exercise a little humility and tell us how many buses have been ordered—not funding allocated, as that does not mean anything to anyone? How many will be manufactured in the UK? How many will realistically be on the road by the end of the Parliament?
Mr Holden
If the hon. Gentleman had waited for a response to his written parliamentary question, which is coming later day, he would have noticed that 68 buses from the ZEBRA—zero emission bus regional areas—scheme are now on the road. He seems to have failed to realise that that is out of a total of 1,604 that are on the road, from out of the 4,233 that have been funded across the UK. He might want to ignore previous schemes, but it is very important that we look at schemes right across the country. On top of that, he asked how many had been ordered across the country: 2,464 have been ordered. We are making great progress towards the over 4,000 by the end of the Parliament. If he would like to provide some extra cash or outline a Labour policy that will do anything for bus users in this area, I would really love to hear it.
Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)
Richard Fuller (North East Bedfordshire) (Con)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Richard Holden)
Following the dismissal of the recent judicial review, the A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet scheme is due to begin construction later this year, with the open-for-traffic date planned for 2027.
Richard Fuller
I thank the Minister for that update. As he will know, with the closure today of the consultation on suggestions for the next phase of road infrastructure—RIS3, or the third road investment strategy—it makes a lot of sense for the Department to continue the momentum by now looking at alternatives to the three remaining roundabouts on the A1 in my constituency: Sandy, Biggleswade North and Biggleswade South.
Mr Holden
I thank my hon. Friend for his question, and it was a delight to visit some of his constituents not that long ago in Sandy to discuss this and Biggleswade roundabout on a route I use regularly. We will continue to keep all these schemes for the long-term improvement of our strategic road network under review. They are very important, particularly when it comes to road safety, and I look forward to having further discussions with him in future.
John Spellar (Warley) (Lab)
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset) (Con)
What can the Government do about the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and the police chasing drivers who have correctly sent in their forms after they have disposed of a vehicle and who then get notices of intended prosecution for a vehicle that they no longer own when they have done the right thing? It seems to turn on its head the principle of innocence.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Richard Holden)
I thank my right hon. Friend for his question. When a person disposing of their vehicle notifies the DVLA that they no longer have the vehicle, they are removed from the record and the DVLA writes to them. If the customer continues to receive correspondence relating to motor vehicle offences, they should contact the DVLA as soon as possible confirming that they are no longer the keeper of the vehicle in question. If he has any constituents with any particular issues, I would be delighted to take them up and look at them as soon as possible.
Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)
Despite billions being invested in buses across the country and £31.7 million going specifically into Stoke-on-Trent, First Bus continues to cut routes, harming 21-year-old carers such as Charlie Preston in Chell who may now have to quit her job. This Government have done their bit—is it not time that First Bus does its bit?
Mr Holden
I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I was delighted to visit Stoke with him and my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Jack Brereton) to see what is going on. I urge the council to use that flexibility to work with First Bus to deliver a solution for all his constituents. We have put that flexibility in there and I hope that it uses it to protect his constituents.
Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) (Lab)
Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)
Mr Holden
I would be delighted to discuss these matters with TfL at our regular meetings. All the decisions in this space are devolved to Transport for London as part of a £6 billion package, and I would be delighted to discuss the matter with the Mayor or the commissioner for transport at my next meeting with them.
Scott Benton (Blackpool South) (Ind)
A passing loop on the South Fylde rail line would double the number of trains coming into my constituency every hour, facilitating the millions of people who come to Blackpool every year. Following the award of feasibility moneys to look at the project, will the Minister meet me to appraise the options?
Greg Smith (Buckingham) (Con)
Yesterday, I chaired a roundtable with the freight sector, looking at the growing problem of theft from lorries in overnight lorry parks and service stations, which is costing the economy hundreds of millions of pounds a year. What is my hon. Friend doing with the sector to ensure that for the extortionate fees freight companies are charged, they get secure parking overnight?
Mr Holden
I thank my hon. Friend for his work in this area and across a number of areas in transport. We are looking in depth at driver welfare, including providing extra lorry parks and more secure facilities, and grants are due to be announced in the summer.
Grahame Morris (Easington) (Lab)
Mr Holden
The Minister of State, Department for Transport, my right hon. Friend the Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire (Jesse Norman), who is the Minister for the future of transport, met Murphy Group this week. The Government remain committed to the lower Thames crossing as part of the responsible decisions taken to help meet inflationary pressures and balance the nation’s books. We will be rephasing construction on the LTC by two years, as this will allow more time to take into account stakeholder views and to ensure that there remains an effective and deliverable plan that is in the best interests of taxpayers.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
The roads Minister will know that the proposed £40-million junction 10A on the A14 at Kettering is crucial for the future prosperity of the town. Can he assure me that National Highways is working expeditiously with the Hanwood Park developer and North Northamptonshire Council to ensure that the project is delivered as soon as possible after 2025?
Mr Holden
I can provide my hon. Friend with that assurance. Having visited his constituency and met him near the project, I know how important it is to him. National Highways is working to do everything possible to see the project come to delivery.
Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)
Mr Holden
I would be delighted to meet the hon. Lady. I met recently with the West of England metro Mayor, who has had £21 million in BSIP funding, which we have made more flexible. To date, he has looked at schemes including the birthday month travel scheme. I can see that she might not be as interested in that as some of her hon. Friends, but I would be delighted to meet her to discuss what more flexibility we could introduce to preserve buses in her constituency.
David Simmonds (Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner) (Con)
Following his recent meeting with Transport for London about its finances, can my hon. Friend update me on what financial modelling it has done on the impact of extending the ultra low emission zone and what account it has taken of the impact should that not go ahead?
Mr Holden
I met the acting chief financial officer and Seb Dance, the deputy Mayor for transport, yesterday. They informed me that the Mayor of London, in anticipation of falling revenues from ULEZ in the next few years, had asked them to investigate the technicalities of introducing road charging across London in the future.
Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)
Last year, Shropshire missed out on bus back better funding, despite having some of the worst services in the country. That funding was hugely scaled back on a national level. Will the Minister commit to reinstating some kind of funding to give rural places the bus services they need?
Mr Holden
I have been looking into all bus funding across the country. The hon. Lady will know that Shropshire Council has had around £1.5 million of BSIP plus funding. On cross-border services, I have been working closely with my hon. Friend the Member for Clwyd South (Simon Baynes), who is doing a huge amount of work in this area, particularly between Shropshire and Wales.
A5036 Park Lane Footbridge Replacement
Richard Holden Excerpts(1 year, 5 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Richard Holden)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Robert. I thank the hon. Member for Bootle (Peter Dowd) for securing this debate on the replacement of the A5036 Park Lane footbridge. He is absolutely right that if it were in my constituency, I would be doing exactly the same as him. I have been doing this with the A689 in my constituency; we are looking at road safety measures at Crook and various other places where we have speeding issues. He is obviously doing his job as a constituency MP absolutely to the letter.
I will make a couple of general points before I address the issues the hon. Gentleman raised. Good transport connections are key to ensuring that road users use our transport network safely. They play a crucial role in supporting productivity, innovation and economic growth across the country. We have provided a series of devolution deals to mayoral combined authorities to ensure that transport connectivity maximises economic growth and supports thriving communities. The Government are fully committed to delivering our vision of levelling up the British economy, strengthening the bonds of our cities and unlocking England’s economic potential, particularly through the northern powerhouse, while ensuring that the Liverpool city region and the north of England play a key role in a resurgent economy.
As the hon. Gentleman said, the A5036 is an urban two-lane dual carriageway that widens out into three lanes at the current signal control junction at Park Lane and Park Lane West. It is the main access road to the port of Liverpool. We have had many discussions and debates about its potential. To the west of the junction, there was a pedestrian footbridge, which was the only crossing facility over the A5036 in the vicinity of the junction. As he said, it was at the heart of the community. National Highways was considering options for its removal as part of a broader look at structures that have been on our roads for decades and perhaps need upgrading or replacing. As he knows, the bridge was struck in October 2022 by an HGV, which resulted in its demolition, as it was deemed unsafe to try to patch it up.
Following that incident, the first priority of National Highways was to ensure that crossings could still be maintained on the road, so it installed a temporary, signal-controlled crossing for access to the west of the junction, next to the existing bus stops. National Highways has now completed the replacement of this initial crossing solution, with a signal-controlled toucan crossing for cyclists and pedestrians that has enabled the removal of the traffic management measures and temporary speed limits. That is a temporary solution, but because of the volume of traffic on the road, including the number of HGVs, it has been constructed to a permanent standard. However, National Highways accepts that the current arrangements have resulted in most pedestrians taking a detour from their usual routes in order to use the new crossing.
As I said, prior to the incident, National Highways had been considering options for replacing the bridge, which was far from ideal as it was accessed by a stepped ramp that provided really poor accessibility for vulnerable users, wheelchair users, motorised wheelchair users, mums with buggies taking the kids to school and other users. In considering the permanent options, National Highways has a duty to ensure that it invests money to deliver schemes that are safe and offer value for money. However, I can assure everyone that across all its activities, National Highways’ top priority, which it takes very seriously, is ensuring public safety.
As the scale of the works to replace the bridge has become clearer, the cost estimates have increased substantially, particularly when we reflect on the modern standards for access. National Highways is completing a review to assess the various options for providing a crossing point that will ensure that users can cross the road at this location safely. Junction improvements that provide signalised crossing points or a bridge are under consideration, but the full cost for those and the difference between the two will be outlined in the near future. I have had a word with National Highways and it will communicate the outcome of the review to local stakeholders within the next few months—I hope that it will be well before the end of the year—and it will also confirm timescales for the construction of any permanent solution.
Following that review, when the options with the costings have been put forward, I will be very happy to meet the hon. Member and National Highways, after they have had a preliminary meeting, to talk about any issues—if he is not happy with the solutions that National Highways comes forward with. I recognise that the outcome of the review will affect the community in Bootle, but it is right that we strive to reach a proper, long-term solution that is safe and delivers value for money. We will continue to work with National Highways to reach a solution and as it looks to communicate that in due course.
Question put and agreed to.
Road User Charging Schemes
Richard Holden Excerpts(1 year, 5 months ago)
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Elliot Colburn
I am grateful to my hon. Friend. Characteristically, and as a former member of the London Assembly, he is absolutely right. Indeed, I imagine that our hon. Friend the Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Nickie Aiken) may have been less supportive at the time if she had known that, only a few years later, the Mayor would be looking to cut the historic No. 11 bus route out of central London and her constituency.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Richard Holden)
I am sorry to intervene on my hon. Friend. I just thought it would be worth reflecting on the quote given by the Opposition Front-Bench spokesperson. Back in 2020, there was no proposal from the Mayor of London to expand ULEZ to the Greater London boundary, so whatever my hon. Friend the Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Nickie Aiken), who is not present, was saying in 2020—I am sure the hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Gill Furniss) let her know that she was going to mention her in Westminster Hall—was not in support of whatever Mayor Khan has put forward. It was not anything about what is being debated today because that was not the ULEZ proposal of Mayor Khan at the time. That is largely the point of some of the petitioners who have been in touch about today’s debate.
Graham Stringer (in the Chair)
Order. We are not under any real time pressure, but can I remind right hon. and hon. Members that interventions should be short and to the point? They are gradually getting longer and longer.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Richard Holden)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Murray, and that of Mr Stringer earlier. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Nick Fletcher) for fulfilling his role on behalf of the Petitions Committee so eloquently and for opening the debate on road-charging schemes.
I wanted to pick up on a comment made by my hon. Friend the Member for Bury South—
Mr Holden
My hon. Friend the Member for Bury North (James Daly)—he is adopting part of Bury South in the boundary changes, which is what confused me slightly.
This area crosses multiple Departments: the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs leads on environmental legislation overall; the Department for Transport owns the enabling powers in multiple different spaces; and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities owns the powers related to the devolution settlements. Road charging cuts across many areas.
Before I get into my speech, I will pick up on a couple of points made by the hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Gill Furniss), who spoke for the Opposition. She said that she did not put words into other people’s mouths, but I can categorically state that I have been in touch with my hon. Friend the Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Nickie Aiken) and that she has never supported the expansion of ULEZ to the borders of Greater London. Given how the Labour party has criticised potential misrepresentations by Members on the Government Benches in recent months, it might be a nice idea for the hon. Lady, at some point in the very near future, to apologise for misrepresenting the views of my hon. Friend. The hon. Lady did not do her the courtesy of telling her that she would mention her in the House today.
I also want to pick up on a couple of points made by my hon. Friends from across the Conservative Benches. Kent, Essex, London, Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire are all represented in the Chamber, and all spoke with a united voice, reflecting on what is being done across the country. It was particularly interesting to see that no Labour Members are present. People going to by-election polls across the country will be interested to see that if they vote Labour, they will get absolutely no voice in this place, whereas with the voice of Steve Tuckwell, the Conservative candidate in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, who has opposed ULEZ consistently, people will know exactly what they get if they vote for him in the upcoming by-election.
Aside from party politics, it is important to talk about the petition. Devolving powers to local authorities is an important tenet of a democratic Government, giving power to those who are closest to and most knowledgeable about the local issues that they face. Devolution helps to drive local and national economic growth, better and more integrated public services, and enhanced public engagement and accountability—at least, that is the theory. Our existing Mayors already play an important role across the country, and the Government are committed to deepening those devolution settlements over time and building on the existing framework.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley said, the GLA Act 1999 was brought in after a referendum on the proposal for a Greater London Authority made up of an elected Mayor and Assembly, with 72% voting in support. In 2015, the first of the Government’s devolution deals was agreed and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority came into being. In 2022, we announced six further devolution deals, bringing devolution to people right across the country, with elected Mayors at their head. The deals mark a new chapter in English devolution. It is important to reflect on what that devolution means. It does not just mean devolving power and money; it also means accountability at a local level. That is what hon. Members have been talking about: people need to be accountable for the decisions that they make in local government.
One of the petitions proposes changing the GLA Act to remove a power from a directly elected Mayor. It is interesting that the petitioners know where the power lies but do not trust the person who is currently in the position to stand up for them. It is quite something when, rather than campaigning to change the person at the top, the petitioners are so concerned—as my hon. Friends the Members for Orpington (Gareth Bacon), for Bury North, and for Carshalton and Wallington (Elliot Colburn) said—about the impact that the policy will have on their lives, and those of their families and communities, that they want to remove a power, because they do not trust the people in those positions to represent them.
Mrs Sheryll Murray (in the Chair)
Order. I remind the Minister that he should be speaking through the Chair.
Mr Holden
Thank you for reminding me, Mrs Murray. I apologise for being discourteous to you.
Hon. Members across the House mentioned tackling air pollution—one of the biggest environmental threats that we face. My hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley highlighted Ella’s case. There is evidence of a link between very high, problematic air pollution and high mortality, but those living in our country can see what the Government are trying to do. We have already introduced the phasing in of electric cars and the phasing out of the internal combustion engine. We are doing the same for heavy goods vehicles and for our coach sector. Before the end of this Parliament, it will be very clear what we will do on the phasing out of the internal combustion engine in our bus network. We have invested in more than 3,400 zero-emission buses across the United Kingdom—very close to our target of 4,000 before the end of the Parliament.
That is what we are doing across the piece to deliver on our environmental objectives. We recently introduced two new targets beyond that for fine particulate matter in the Environment Act 2021. We have invested another £883 million to tackle air pollution in 64 local authorities where nitrogen dioxide levels were too high. Since 2010, we have awarded a further £53 million to English local authorities to support more than 500 local projects. As recently as 9 February, we announced the latest round of funding under the air quality grant scheme. London gets its own package, as my hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Mr French) said, through the £6 billion that we have delivered to the Mayor of London for him to deliver on air quality locally. So we are not just talking about action; we are actually delivering it.
The hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough talked about the Labour Government in Wales as a pioneer. They are pioneering in so many different ways. They have the highest waiting lists in the entire United Kingdom. They have the lowest employment across the United Kingdom as well. If they are the pioneers of the Labour revolution, we can all see what they actually stand for. They are not delivering in the same way as we are in England on multiple environmental policies. We are monitoring rivers up and down the country—something that Labour is not even looking at in Wales at the moment.
Gill Furniss
The Minister spoke a minute or two ago about investing in bus and rail services. I wonder why we have so much discontent throughout communities all over the country about the lack of bus services and the trains being unreliable. [Hon. Members: “Strikes and unions!”] Strikes, yes. In the end, what is the Government’s money doing? Does the Minister recognise that the cuts to local authorities have had a massive impact already? Whatever money the Government are putting in is nowhere near as much as the money they have taken out of local authorities.
Mr Holden
Before the pandemic, the Government were paying, through concessionary travel schemes and support through the bus service operators grant, around 40% of all the cash going into bus services in this country. At the moment, because we are supporting bus services as they recover from the pandemic, it is around 60%; £3.5 billion has gone into the bus network across the country.
Mr Holden
There have been no recent proposals from the Opposition Front Bench when it comes to actual cash. We have just approved a new plan of £500 million supporting bus services across the country, and a £2 fare cap. That is money that we have put in to support fare schemes in the combined authority areas, which I know Labour mayors up and down the country like to take credit for. That is money that the Government have been investing right across the country, whether in Greater Manchester or Greater London.
Elliot Colburn
Does the Minister share my confusion that Labour’s argument for ULEZ, advanced in this place and in our local areas, is that local authorities have been forced to do this, and that they do not want to? That is not what the Mayor of London is saying. The Mayor of London has written a whole book about how proud he is of the ultra low emission zone. Does my hon. Friend think that is really the best that Labour can come up with?
Mr Holden
I tend to agree with my hon. Friend. The Mayor put the idea of an expanded ULEZ in his manifesto, but it was not the expanded zone that we see today, which was only delivered by the votes of the Labour party, the Lib Dems and the Greens in the London Assembly. They voted to extend it right to the outer borders of Greater London, rather than what the Mayor of London had proposed in his manifesto.
The hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough shouted at me from a sedentary position that whatever we are providing for the bus sector is still not enough. I would love her to tell me how much more we should put in. When I speak to Labour politicians at the moment, none of them can tell me. They have no plan. They are just an opportunistic Opposition. This Government have put more than ever before into the bus network. We have capped prices for working people, which is something the Labour party never did when it was in office. Right up and down the country we have put in the new bus service operators grant of 22p per kilometre, which now includes electric buses—something that was not the case just a few years ago. We remain committed to an end date for non-zero emission buses, and that consultation will be reported on soon.
Mr Francois
We have concentrated mainly on roads in this debate, but as the hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Gill Furniss) introduced the topic, does the Minister agree with the simple proposition that our rail network would run much more efficiently if the rail unions stopped going on strike?
Mr Holden
I have to agree with my right hon. Friend. I was attacking on so many different fronts that I forgot to mention the elephant in the room, which is the continuing rail strikes by people who have been incredibly financially supportive of the Labour party over the years.
Although there is a huge amount more to be done, we can be proud that air pollution has reduced significantly since 2010. Emissions of fine particulate matter have fallen by 10%; transport emissions of nitrous oxide have fallen by 32%, overall nitrogen oxide by 45% and sulphur dioxide by 73%. The hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough might criticise a reduction of three quarters in the amount of sulphur dioxide and wish that we could go further. I want to go further too, which is why we are phasing out internal combustion engine vehicles. If she wants to go further, would she outline exactly how far and fast she would like to go?
The only statutory air quality limit that the UK is currently not hitting as fast as we would like is for nitrogen dioxide around our road network, but we are making massive progress there. Around 72% of the road transport emissions of nitrogen oxides comes from diesel cars and vans, which we are phasing out. If we are going to introduce a ULEZ across Greater London requiring £250 million of capital cost, which is going to be phased out anyway because of the fact that we will be moving, in pretty short order, towards electric vehicles, particularly in smaller areas, it seems to be particularly targeted—I think the Conservative speakers really picked this up—on those who use second-hand cars and who, because they cannot afford to buy new vehicles, will be running those cars for a long time. It is particularly pernicious to put those people at the front of the list.
James Daly
Does my hon. Friend agree that this scheme is targeted, like every single Labour policy, at the self-employed? This scheme unduly impacts self-employed people, who require transport to go out to work, so it is grossly unfair.
Mr Holden
There is absolutely no doubt that my hon. Friend is absolutely right. The owner of a small business who literally carries the tools of their trade in the back of their van does not have other options. Even if people are not the owners of small businesses but are just commuting to work in a car or van, the Mayor has now hit them on the other side with a day travel card, as my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Gareth Johnson) said. In addition to those extra £50 million of costs, they are being told to use public transport and then told to pay an absolutely huge amount more for it, particularly if they are coming from outside the Greater London area. Again, that is a change that hon. Members have been reflecting on today. It means that the people affected by the change pay more but still do not have any say over the person responsible. That is part of the democratic deficit argument that Members have talked about.
I need to move on to local government powers around air quality. Powers enabling local authorities to introduce road schemes that charge users are of long standing. They can be used by local authorities to deliver what they want in their areas. There are no plans to revoke these powers, which are in the Transport Act 2000. They provide local authorities with an important tool. It is for local authorities to make decisions and to be accountable for those decisions.
We require local authorities to consult on these schemes. The Prime Minister has spoken at the Dispatch Box—I think it was in response to a question from one of the hon. Members here today; it might have been my hon. Friend the Member for Orpington (Gareth Bacon)—on the consultation around the ULEZ scheme. The Prime Minister thought it would be a sensible idea for the Mayor of London to think again and I tend to agree with him. This scheme needs to be thought about again, more broadly.
These powers have been used by some local authorities in various areas, but what I would say to all local authorities across the country is that if they want to take people with them, they should not try to drive people out of using cars; they should provide better quality alternatives. It is particularly sad to see the Mayor of London reducing some bus routes, particularly historical bus routes, and not allowing that alternative when people really need it. I have pledged before to my right hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet (Theresa Villiers) that I will speak to the transport commissioner in London about the No. 84 bus. I will see the commissioner in the next few weeks, and I will do so again.
The Government recognise the need to support a range of solutions across the board for individuals and businesses affected by measures to tackle air pollution. That is why we have already awarded £402 million through the clean air fund to some of the local authorities that face some of the most pernicious negative impacts of air quality that are also difficult to mitigate.
Under the Greater London Authority Act 1999, transport in London is devolved to the Mayor and Transport for London. It is the Mayor’s responsibility to manage and oversee the transport network. This includes the power to create, or vary, road schemes that charge users, which is why the petitioners drafted their petition in the way that they did. It is up to the Mayor to determine and justify what he is doing.
The mayoralty in London has previously used those powers to introduce the congestion zone, the low emission zone and the current smaller ULEZ in central London. When the Mayor brought forward his transport strategy, which was voted on, it could have been rejected by the members of the GLA, but instead it was supported by every party in the GLA apart from the Conservatives. That is where the Mayor gets his ability to do this from.
Gareth Bacon
The GLA Act gives the London Assembly the power to accept or veto mayoral strategies, including the transport strategy, but only on the proviso that two thirds of elected members of the GLA agree on an alternative, which means that of the 25-member GLA, 17 would have to agree on the alternative. The electoral system for the London Assembly guarantees that no one party will be able to achieve that; Labour votes would have been required to achieve that. That is why the Mayor’s budget has never been amended and why no strategies have ever been amended. Does the Minister agree that that is precisely why the petitioners have put forward this petition today? The London Assembly does not have the effective power to veto the Mayor’s transport strategy, which is why the petitioners are calling on the Government to step in and do that.
Mr Holden
I thank my hon. Friend for making that point. What is particularly interesting today about Labour Members is how few of them are here. In fact, no Labour Back Bencher is here. I would be really interested to know why that is the case. It is clear to me that a few of them, secretly and in the background, would go against their party leader, the Leader of the Opposition, who is fully behind Mayor Khan’s plan for the massive expansion of the ULEZ. I think a few of them would like to speak up in that way.
I understand the point that my hon. Friend makes and I will address it directly at the end of my remarks, if I may, but I think it is very important that we also say to people, “If you want change, then rather than trying to change the rules or the legislation in this place, you can change the person in charge of implementing them.” That is the most important message that we can send today, and a really important way of sending that message in the very near future is to deliver it in Uxbridge in the next few weeks—sorry, Mrs Murray, I digressed slightly there.
The mayoralty in London has previously used the GLA Act to introduce various measures, and there has been a significant reduction in nitrous oxide as well as particulates and other pollutants over the last few years, but that is due to improvements in engines as well as to other factors. The Mayor of London needs no agreement from the Government or the London boroughs to pursue his proposed expansion of the ULEZ under the current law, and although the current Mayor notified the Department for Transport of his intention to expand the ULEZ, he is not obliged by the legislation to consult the Department. At the last mayoral election, in 2021, the Mayor stood on a manifesto that included a pledge to expand the ULEZ to the boundary of the North and South Circular Roads; his manifesto did not say that the ULEZ would be expanded to the boundary of Greater London. To implement his preferred option of expanding the ULEZ, the Mayor had to revise his transport strategy, and this was subject to a consultation and a vote in the London Assembly.
The car is an important, and often the only, way for people to get around in their daily lives; the same is true of small vans. These vehicles are particularly needed for people who have limited mobility—another element to this issue that we all need to consider at the moment. People depend on their vehicles for food, for their health, for their livelihoods and to visit friends and family. They should be given a choice of how they travel. Imposing obstacles and doing so during a cost of living crisis is quite a blow to those who need their cars, who have no real alternative and whose choice is being removed. The Mayor could have proposed other, less intrusive measures to improve air quality in the capital, but he did not; instead, he and has chosen to expand the ULEZ. That is his decision, and he has the power to do it under the current law.
Before I conclude my remarks, I want to touch on the rest of the country, because my hon. Friend the Member for Bury North also raised important points. One area where we do recognise an emerging inconsistency is in the powers of local authorities to look at charging systems where the approach taken in London differs from those outside the capital. The judicial review of the Mayor’s proposal is being heard in July. At the moment, I cannot speak in much greater detail about that, aside from saying that the case will be heard on four grounds—it was two previously, before the recent appeal—including how the Mayor conducted his consultation, and his scrappage scheme. Clearly, it would not be proper to comment on that, but we have seen the difficulty that the inconsistency in local authority powers can create, with four London borough councils, alongside Surrey County Council, challenging the decision. It is important to recognise that. As many hon. Members have said, constituents being impacted without their having the ability to change the Mayor is a real issue.
Outside London, combined authorities have their own locally agreed decision-making processes. For road schemes that charge users, powers are typically held by combined and local authorities, and some degree of local authority agreement is required to introduce schemes. That is separate and different from the situation in Greater London. Two decades on from the re-establishment of the mayoralty of London, it is right that the Government take stock of how London’s devolution settlement is operating in practice, which is why the Government are committed to reviewing the London devolution settlement as part of the English devolution accountability framework more broadly.
I am not in a position today to announce any change to the Government’s position on this issue—it is more proper for Ministers in other Departments to fully reflect on it—but I recognise the strength of feeling not only of hon. Members present but of the petitioners. I commit to raising the concerns expressed during the debate with ministerial colleagues.
Transport Accessibility: Bolton West
Richard Holden Excerpts(1 year, 5 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Richard Holden)
I begin by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Chris Green) on securing this debate, and on speaking so passionately about the issues not just in his constituency, but across Greater Manchester and the wider region. He made the point at the very start of his comments that the transport infrastructure should not be a funnel towards Manchester city centre, but a fanning out, with a radial approach right across the region. As a Lancashire lad from not very far up the road in Blackburn, I am fully aware of many of the issues he has raised. I used to trundle through on those Pacer trains down the Ribble Valley line through Bolton and into Manchester, and we can see the transformation over the last few years with the investment from this Government. I have visited Bury recently, but I will be coming to Bolton soon, so I look forward to seeing some of the upgrades my hon. Friend has talked about, particularly around Daisy Hill station as I am the accessibility champion for the Department.
My hon. Friend talked about the radial movement of traffic around Greater Manchester, and I think it was particularly important what he said about the need to avoid any of the artificial barriers that council boundaries can sometimes create. I am really glad to see that he and other Conservative Members from across Greater Manchester are happy to work with the Mayor. Just yesterday, I had a meeting with the Mayor and my hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (James Grundy) about some of the projects the Mayor is pushing forward. I am just so glad to see Conservative Members leaning forward on that. I know that some Opposition Members, if any had been here today, would not perhaps have wanted to talk about the Mayor of Greater Manchester, given that we know the relationship between him and the Leader of the Opposition could perhaps be improved, if I can put it like that. However, it is Conservative MPs who are really leading the fight for their constituencies right across the region. Given the long-standing nature of the career of my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West compared with that of some of his colleagues in Greater Manchester, I am sure he will be able to guide them and help them.
My hon. Friend is right to talk about the broader issues of economic opportunity, because that is what transport is really about. Yes, it is about getting from A to B, but it is also about why someone wants to get from A to B. It is about cultural connections, economic growth and delivering opportunity for people across the country, and I think that was at the heart of what he was really saying. It is about the broader levelling-up approach that the Government have taken in that space, and we need to continue that and do more of it.
The Government recognise the importance of transport to Greater Manchester, its people and the economy, and we have demonstrated that in the commitments made through the “trailblazer” deeper devolution deal, and our significant funding commitments, such as the electrification projects that my hon. Friend talked about. Indeed, when I was a special adviser in the Department for Transport a few years ago, I remember visiting Bolton with the then Secretary of State and my hon. Friend, to see some of that fantastic work in progress. It goes to show that over the past 13 years there has been a huge amount of electrification, compared with what happened in the previous 13 years.
Chris Green
Many tens of miles have been delivered under this Government, with about seven or so miles during 13 years of the previous Government. We are delivering, and we have more ambitious plans to carry on rolling out electrification.
Mr Holden
My hon. Friend is right about the seismic shift in electrification. I cannot quote the exact number off the top of my head, but I will write to him with that. We are talking about a magnitude of 10, 20, or 30 times what happened under the last Labour Government. That shows a real commitment to transport in this country, and to faster, more reliable transport. Electric trains are also lighter, which reduces wear and tear on the network because they do not have to drag a full diesel engine. There are all sorts of benefits to electrification.
However, it is not just electrification. We have put more than £1 billion into Greater Manchester through the city region sustainable transport settlement over five years. Most areas of local government love the prospect of a five-year plan, but we have delivered it. We have delivered it because we need that long-term vision, and we want to back that long-term thinking for Greater Manchester, to ensure that it can properly level up. There are also local public transport and active travel networks. On top of that, we have invested £94.8 million to support the implementation of Greater Manchester’s bus service improvement plan, and another £35.7 million for the zero-emission bus network.
Just in the past fortnight, the Secretary of State and I signed off an additional £18 million in extraordinary funding for Greater Manchester, to help maintain local transport services until the end of 2024. Two weeks before that we announced a further £72.3 million infrastructure package for rail services in Greater Manchester and the north-west, with upgrades to Manchester Victoria, and a third platform being built at Salford Crescent. That will help to ease those bottlenecks into Manchester, and particularly on the Manchester to Bolton corridor that my hon. Friend will know well. Those works support future service improvements to a range of destinations across, and not just into, Greater Manchester and beyond, including the constituency of my hon. Friend. That forms part of much wider plans to transform rail services in the area and across the north of England, including the trans-Pennine route upgrade and electrification of the Wigan to Bolton route that my hon. Friend mentioned. All those schemes build on in excess of £1 billion investment completed in 2019, which upgraded and electrified many railway lines across the north-west, and introduced that crucial new fleet of trains for Northern and the TransPennine Express for which we had waited so long.
Let me turn to the specifics of the electrification on the Wigan to Bolton line, which my hon. Friend mentioned. In September 2021, the Government invested £78 million to electrify the railway lines between Bolton and Wigan by the middle of this decade. That vital project will enable the Bolton to Manchester corridor, which is one of the busiest rail routes in the area, to host longer electric trains with a greater seating capacity—that is often a concern mentioned by our constituents up and down the country, particularly at peak hours. The work will electrify 13 miles of track and lengthen platforms for six-car capacity at Westhoughton, Hindley and Ince stations. Line closures have been happening since January, delivering the early works, including replacement of bridges. Indeed, as I speak the new Ladies Lane concrete bridge spans over Hindley station are being readied for installation this weekend. Project plans to ensure delivery at the earliest opportunity are in progress so that passenger benefits can be realised swiftly.
My hon. Friend will be pleased to note that in December 2022 the timetable successfully implemented a number of changes developed through the Manchester taskforce, to improve on the performance levels experienced in 2018 and 2019 when delays marred a significant number of journeys. The Bolton corridor saw an increase in train lengths to provide sufficient capacity to meet demand, a standardised timetable pattern and the re-routing of the Barrow-Windermere airport service via the Bolton corridor. The Manchester taskforce is currently looking at the next stage of service development to maximise the benefits of the Wigan-Bolton and Victoria-Stalybridge electrification schemes and the recently announced improvements around Manchester. That is more of those tentacles spreading out, as my hon. Friend mentioned.
My hon. Friend spoke extensively about buses in his speech. Given that I am the local transport and roads Minister, it is one of my favourite forms of transport. Not only do I look after it directly, but it also uses roads, which are the other part of my brief, so buses are particularly important to me. I echo his comments. The Government know how important local bus services are to ensuring communities can stay connected and people can access vital local services, particularly many of the elderly, who for a variety of reasons may no longer be able to use their own transport. That is why we have invested more than £3.5 billion in buses since March 2020 to keep services running in the face of plummeting levels of patronage during the pandemic and to drive long-term improvements to bus services up and down the country. That includes our recently announced package of long-term support of £300 million over the next two years to provide the long-term certainty that the sector requires to deliver sustainable bus networks that better reflect the needs of those who rely on these vital services every day.
Part of that funding was for the measures to ensure we have cheaper bus fares with the £2 cap on single fares from 1 January, which is currently available on more than 5,000 routes across England outside London, including ones from my hon. Friend’s constituency out to other parts of the country. Sometimes our Metro Mayors take full credit for the bus service support locally, but it is only right that my hon. Friend takes some of the credit, because it is only his votes in this place that have allowed us to deliver that money for the Mayor of Greater Manchester. It is important that we recognise that.
The measure to cap fares is helping to encourage more people to use buses and is saving passengers money during what everyone in the House acknowledges are difficult economic times. That is why we recently announced that the scheme will be extended until 31 October this year, with a further £2.50 fare cap all the way through to 30 November 2024. The funding we have provided over the past three years is the largest Government investment in buses for a generation.
In the past three years alone, Greater Manchester has received around £135 million from this Government purely in pandemic-related support to keep the buses running. That is in addition to the £95 million to deliver Greater Manchester’s local bus service improvement plan and almost £36 million to support the roll-out of zero-emission buses in Greater Manchester. We have stepped up to support Greater Manchester’s local transport network as it implements the franchising of bus services and delivers the Bee Network. Giving local transport authorities greater control over the provision of bus services in their area, either through an enhanced partnership or through franchising, is a key part of the Government’s levelling-up agenda. For areas that decide to take on franchising, that means they are taking on the farebox risk, so they need to ensure that their plans are right, and they will rightly be held accountable by the public for the decisions they take.
We are clear that franchised services must deliver a more comprehensive service for passengers, so I am pleased that my hon. Friend’s constituents will be some of the first to benefit from the newly franchised services in Bolton and Wigan when they commence this September.
My hon. Friend raised the workplace parking levy. On local charging, I am aware of the attempts in 2008 by the Greater Manchester authority to introduce a congestion charge as part of a bid to the then Government’s transport innovation fund. That was rejected by a local referendum, as my hon. Friend mentioned, and has not been resurrected since. Any consideration of a workplace parking levy would be for local authorities to promote and is a matter for local judgment and debate.
However, workplace parking levy schemes cannot be implemented without formal approval from my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, who will consider in full the merits of any proposals and listen to hard-working local MPs from across the Greater Manchester area. I recognise that a workplace parking levy scheme may have wider impacts on local residents and businesses. We would expect the local authority to explain those impacts in full to the Secretary of State as part of any proposal, along with any mitigations proposed to the negative impacts where a local authority has concluded that there is no feasible alternative to such a levy.
My hon. Friend also mentioned the Mayor’s plan for a clean air zone. Greater Manchester local authorities provided revised air quality proposals on 1 July last year. We have written requesting further evidence from the Greater Manchester authorities to enable us to consider their plans further. The Government have already allocated nearly £170 million to Greater Manchester to help reduce nitrogen dioxide levels. That is on top of the money we put into the zero-emission bus plan and into the city region sustainable transport settlement. Some of the comments that he made were particularly important. We should be providing that positive choice of a public transport alterative to people and not trying to coerce them into doing things. That is what is most important and that is what the Government have stood behind with more than £1 billion put in through a five-year package. I urge local government across the country, including in Greater Manchester, to think about the message that it is sending to people when it proposes some of these plans.
I turn to the important issue of accessibility to transport. There are more than 14 million disabled people in the UK—a fifth of the country—and that number is set to rise further as the population grows and people develop more issues in their old age. Today, disabled people make fewer journeys than non-disabled people and are significantly less likely to be employed. Transport can act as a powerful enabler, connecting people with places and unlocking access to education and employment, but it can do that only if it is designed and provided with disabled people in mind.
It is vital that the transport services we rely on can be used easily and confidently by everybody. That is at the core of the Government’s inclusive transport strategy, published in 2018, and it is just as relevant today as when it was first released. The strategy outlines a number of commitments, and the progress that we are making to address them will support disabled people across Bolton West to make the journeys that are important to them, as it will for millions of disabled people across the country. That will also provide broader benefits for the rest of the travelling public.
For example, in May—just last month—Parliament approved the Public Service Vehicles (Accessible Information) Regulations 2023, which I took through Committee. They will require the provision of audible and visible information on board local bus and coach services in Britain, so bus users in Bolton should be able to travel with as much confidence as those in other parts of the country. That is a small but important part of levelling up for many people in the country.
We also continue to invest in the accessibility of our railway stations. I am pleased to say that, as my hon. Friend said in his speech, a new lift will be installed later this year at Daisy Hill to provide a step-free route between the station entrance, ticketing facilities and platforms. In March, we launched the inclusive transport leaders scheme, inviting transport operators from across the country to share their knowledge of improving service accessibility and to celebrate their progress in supporting the creation of an inclusive transport system. Those are just three examples of how the Government are levelling up accessibility across our country, including in Bolton West.
In 2020, we launched the “It’s everyone’s journey” campaign, encouraging all passengers to travel with a little more awareness of each other’s needs, and in so doing seeking to increase disabled people’s confidence to travel. Last year, we supported the Bill introduced by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Sir Jeremy Wright) that aimed to eliminate discrimination against all disabled taxi and private hire vehicle users. Later this year, we will publish updated best practice guidance for local licensing authorities, including strengthened recommendations on providing an inclusive service.
On buses, local authorities entering into partnership arrangements with their local bus operators are required to actively reflect the needs of their disabled passengers in their plans, and new bus charters should ensure a shared understanding of the rights of all bus users to access services. So, across the piece, whether on private hire vehicles and taxis, on our buses or on our rail network, the Government are at the forefront of ensuring that accessible public transport options are available to everybody.
Greater Manchester now faces a significant opportunity as it prepares to franchise bus services later this year, to redefine what an accessible transport system means and to ensure that services, including in my hon. Friend’s constituency, genuinely reflect the needs of local people and passengers. We rightly seek improvements in accessibility at a national level, but I am keenly aware that inaccessibility is deeply individual and a localised experience. It is about the buses, taxis and trains that disabled people take every day, and the extent to which they are respected as individuals and their needs anticipated.
I am clear that together as a Government, working with transport authorities and operators and the mayoral combined authorities, we must strive to listen to passengers, whatever their needs are. We must seek to improve transport provision so that it truly works for everyone, every day.
Question put and agreed to.
Network Rail: Doubledykes Crossing
Richard Holden Excerpts(1 year, 6 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Richard Holden)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. I thank the hon. Member for Glenrothes (Peter Grant) for securing this debate, which concerns the closure of the Doubledykes level crossing in his constituency. I want to acknowledge the strength of feeling on the issue and thank the local community for presenting the petition, which has received over 1,100 signatures. Before I go into the specifics, I will talk briefly about railways, the role of Network Rail and level crossing safety more generally.
Rail is an important engine of economic growth. It serves several functions: it offers commuters a safe and reliable route to work, it facilitates business and leisure travel, it connects communities with their public services, workplaces and other economic opportunities, and it transports millions of tonnes of freight around the country, relieving congestion on roads and bringing huge environmental benefits. We want to build on the success in UK rail since the mid-1990s by improving and extending services where viable.
We are well aware of the positive impacts that improved, more frequent and direct rail services can have on communities. That includes the reopening of the Levenmouth rail link, which was approved by the Scottish Government in August 2019 and which will result in passenger services between Leven and Thornton for the first time in over 50 years. That project is scheduled to be completed by spring 2024 and will bring considerable benefits to the area and the surrounding region, in the hon. Member’s constituency and beyond.
For all its benefits, the creation of a new service does create safety risks that have to be managed effectively, not least on sections of railway track that have not seen high levels of traffic for several decades. That creates difficult choices for rail operators and for Network Rail, the operator of the mainline rail network, as it seeks to deliver faster and more frequent services safely. There are no easy solutions, and I recognise the huge responsibility that organisations such as Network Rail bear. Operational decisions such as these are rightly a matter for Network Rail, the safety duty holder for Britain’s railway infrastructure, which has the expertise needed to look at decisions in depth.
Network Rail’s responsibilities include user safety at over 6,000 level crossings on the mainline rail network. Level crossings now represent the single greatest source of risk for fatal rail accidents; there were seven fatalities at level crossings in the last year alone. In most accidents or incidents at level crossings, actions by the user, intended or unintended, have been a contributory factor.
Peter Grant
Any serious injury or fatality is a tragedy, but can the Minister clarify how many of those incidents took place on mainline railways and how many took place on low-volume, low-usage branch lines, where trains have a much slower speed than on the main line?
Mr Holden
I will happily write to the hon. Member about all the incidents in the past few years. It is probably quite helpful for him to have that specific knowledge about, let us say, the past 10 years, so I will get my officials to write to him on that. Incidents have taken place on branch lines and on the main line; I will provide a breakdown and write to him in detail about those fatalities.
Network Rail is putting significant effort into improving safety at level crossings. It is focusing on several things: first, improving the operation and maintenance of level crossings; secondly, a programme of risk assessment to identify priorities for further action; thirdly, measures to promote the safe use of crossings by pedestrians and drivers; and fourthly, where necessary, closing crossings altogether where they continue to present an unacceptable safety risk. No decision to close a level crossing is taken lightly, because level crossings often provide a really important means of access to local communities. None the less, although the safety record of level crossings in this country is among the best in the world, we cannot afford to be complacent, and we want to seek to reduce the risk of incidents wherever we can.
I turn to the Doubledykes level crossing, which is obviously of particular interest to the hon. Member and is the subject of this debate. It is one of several level crossings on the Levenmouth rail link, which on reopening will connect Leven with Thornton and join the Fife circle line at Thornton North junction.
As the hon. Member will doubtless know, Doubledykes level crossing was established in 1863 during a period of huge expansion of the rail network, both locally in Fife and right across the country. The level crossing has been used by the local community to access both sides of the railway and the surrounding area.
Since the end of passenger services on the Levenmouth rail link in 1969, services have ceased on this part of the network and people have become accustomed to using the level crossing without any risk. The reopening of the link will see, for the first time in a generation, services returning to this part of the rail network. Trains are expected to pass through Doubledykes level crossing about twice an hour. This will bring much-needed benefits to the wider community by connecting the towns of Leven and Thornton. It will also create additional risks, including at Doubledykes level crossing. Although the level crossing currently remains open, Network Rail has confirmed that it plans to close it when the new link is in operation, to protect the safety of the local community and rail users.
My Department has not been involved in the project to reopen the rail link or in the decision to close the level crossing. That decision quite properly rests with Network Rail in exercising its duty as infrastructure manager to ensure the safety of the travelling public. I understand that the decision was made in consultation with Transport Scotland, the South East of Scotland Transport Partnership and Fife Council, which are the joint project sponsors of the rail line. For that reason, it would not be appropriate for me to comment in detail on the decisions taken in this case, which are more properly a matter for the Scottish Government and the project sponsors.
I appreciate, however, that the closing of any level crossing can be inconvenient and very upsetting for local communities. That will be particularly true in the case of Doubledykes, which has not had rail traffic stopping people crossing since the late 1960s; it is evident from the large number of people who signed the petition. I cannot speak on behalf of the sponsors of the Levenmouth rail link, but I am sure that that will have been an important part of their considerations during the planning stages.
Peter Grant
I am grateful to the Minister for giving way again; he is being very generous with his time. May I remind the House that I am not particularly pushing for a level crossing? It is not the only possible answer.
The Minister mentioned risk assessments of level crossings. Does he understand the local puzzlement as to how Network Rail could possibly have done a risk assessment of this crossing if it has no idea how many people are using it just now?
Mr Holden
As I have said to the hon. Gentleman, it is obviously for Network Rail, alongside the other sponsors of the project in Scotland, to justify the assessments that it has made. They will have made the assessments as part of their planning processes; it might well be best if the hon. Gentleman directed his specific questions about how decisions are arrived at to the relevant sponsoring authorities.
Ultimately, any decision on whether to close a level crossing must ensure the safety of level crossing users and rail users. In a case such as Doubledykes, I am confident that Network Rail will have looked at the risk profile, the frequency of services and the number of people using the crossing and will have worked with others in the region to look at this. However, I understand the concerns of the hon. Gentleman and his constituents about this matter.
I have spoken to my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle (Huw Merriman), who is the Minister with responsibility for rail. He would be happy to have further meetings with the hon. Gentleman in person, to look further at the issues and see what can be done, if the hon. Gentleman would like to do so and if that would be useful to him. I will also happily write to Transport Scotland in response to the concerns that the hon. Gentleman has raised today, to push this issue further.
It was particularly good to hear that the hon. Gentleman is considering multiple different solutions in this space. I hope that his call has been heard by the decision makers and the local sponsors of this project so that they can also think about the other potential options to maintain connectivity, but, as I have said, the funding and the options are really a matter for those sponsors.
Once again, I thank the hon. Member and his local residents for bringing this matter to the attention of the House. I am sure that the Rail Minister will look forward to meeting him at the earliest opportunity to see what more we can do to work with him on the issue. I also look forward to writing to Transport Scotland to express the concerns of the hon. Member and his constituents about this important local issue.
Question put and agreed to.
Draft Road Vehicles (Authorised Weight) (Amendment) Regulations 2023
Richard Holden Excerpts(1 year, 6 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Richard Holden)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Road Vehicles (Authorised Weight) (Amendment) Regulations 2023.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. The draft regulations will be made under the powers conferred by sections 41(1), (2)(d), (3) and (5) of the Road Traffic Act 1988. They implement increases in weight limits by up to a maximum of 1 tonne for certain alternatively fuelled heavy goods vehicles and by a flat 2 tonnes for certain zero-emission vehicles. In all cases, the maximum weight limits for individual axles will remain unchanged.
No additional weight allowance for zero-emission or alternatively fuelled vehicles will apply to the heaviest articulated lorry and road train combinations, of 44 tonnes, or to four-axle motor vehicles of 32 tonnes. The extra weight allowances do apply to articulated lorries and roadtrain combinations with five or six axles, normally limited to 40 tonnes. They also apply to four-axle combinations, normally limited to 36 or 38 tonnes, and to certain smaller zero-emission lorries with two or three axles. In addition, they apply to zero-emission three-axle articulated buses. Two or three-axle alternatively fuelled versions of these types can already operate at up to 1 tonne above the normal limits.
Implementing these changes will provide domestic operators with the flexibility already available to those from the EU operating in Great Britain. Within the EU-UK trade and co-operation agreement, under appendix 31-C-1-1, the maximum authorised weights for certain vehicles carrying out movements under the agreement have been increased.
Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con)
I very much welcome the instrument the Minister is bringing forward. It will help to deliver the Government’s net zero strategy by encouraging the adoption of ultra low and zero-emission vehicles. Does he agree that encouraging the switch to lower-carbon and zero-carbon driving is a better way to address climate and pollution matters than trying to drive vehicles off the road through things such as the ultra low emission zone in London?
Mr Holden
I thank my right hon. Friend for that intervention, and I wholeheartedly agree. The best option is providing alternatives through public transport and also, wherever possible, assistance to those wanting to switch, as we are doing today with the HGV sector. That will also include hydrogen, which will be important for some of the longer-distance lorries, as well as for electric vehicles. My right hon. Friend makes an excellent point.
The agreement applies to vehicles used on international journeys and to EU vehicles operating in the UK on cabotage. The allowances are to accommodate the additional weight of alternative fuel technology up to a maximum of 1 tonne and, for a zero-emission technology, 2 extra tonnes.
To put the regulations in context, transport is the biggest greenhouse gas-emitting sector of our economy, and road freight is a significant contributor to that. In 2021, HGVs produced around 20% of greenhouse gas emissions from our domestic transport network. Utilising zero-emission and alternatively fuelled freight vehicles can contribute positively to freight decarbonisation and help with achieving the UK’s commitment to reach net zero by 2050.
A vehicle’s powertrain consists of the components that generate power and then transmit it to the road to move the vehicle. Currently, alternatively fuelled and zero-emission heavy goods vehicles may have a heavier powertrain technology than traditionally fuelled internal combustion engine heavy goods vehicles. For example, a pressurised fuel tank in an alternatively fuelled vehicle, or batteries in a zero-emission vehicle, can be significantly heavier than a conventional petrol or diesel fuel tank—I saw some examples recently on a visit to DHL in the midlands.
The typically heavier powertrains of these vehicles mean that, under current regulations, alternatively fuelled and zero-emission HGVs may have to carry a reduced amount of cargo than comparable fossil fuel vehicles. This places them at a competitive disadvantage. The higher weight of the empty vehicles acts as a payload penalty, which then decreases the commercial viability of zero or lower-emission vehicles.
The regulations would afford zero-emission vehicles a weight increase of 2 tonnes, as opposed to the maximum 1 tonne increase offered to alternatively fuelled vehicles, as the features that make them zero emission—particularly the batteries—are likely to be heavier, although I think we all hope that these provisions will be needed less as the technology continues to improve over time. This approach further incentivises the uptake of zero-emission vehicles, bringing potential benefits via emission reductions.
A public consultation asking whether to permit alternatively fuelled or zero-emission vehicles to have that slightly higher weight limit was carried out between 14 July and 3 September 2021 as part of a wider consultation on the phase-out dates for sales of new non-zero-emission heavy goods vehicles. Of the responses received, 59% were in favour of the increase in weight limits, with only 6% opposed and the remainder being “Don’t know”. A Government response confirming our intention to introduce these changes was published on 12 May 2022.
Let me turn to the contents of the statutory instrument. Amendments will be made to the Road Vehicles (Authorised Weight) Regulations 1998 by making provision to increase the maximum authorised weight for certain alternatively fuelled and zero-emission vehicles. Amendments will also be made to add a definition of “zero-emission vehicle”. The regulations provide for the Secretary of State to undertake a review of the regulatory provision contained in these regulations on a five-yearly basis. That is to account for the rapid deployment of technology and to ensure that increased weight limits remain suitable.
To conclude, the regulations are essential for supporting the commercial viability of zero-emission and alternatively fuelled commercial heavy goods vehicles. They do not involve any regulatory burden on domestic road freight operators. Instead, they aim to give flexibility to those using zero-emission or alternatively fuelled HGVs. The de minimis assessment identifies a best-estimate monetised net present value over the years of £18.2 million, which relates to the greater business efficiency as a result of these measures. There are also unmonetised costs, such as infrastructure costs, and unmonetised benefits, such as a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The regulations will also ensure parity of regulation, meaning that domestic operators will not be placed at a disadvantage to their European counterparts. I hope Members will join me in supporting the regulations, and I commend them to the Committee.
Mr Holden
I will attempt to address some of the points that have been raised. The common theme in the comments from both Opposition Front Benchers was road maintenance and repair. I hope that, like me, they will welcome the extra £200 million announced in the Budget this year, as well as the £950 million a year that we put in, split between councils and National Highways. I would also point out that as parts of our motorway network, in particular, including bridges and other important structures, move towards the end of their life over the next few years and need to be replaced, an enormous and increasing amount will go into that space to address some of those issues. So a huge amount is going into the maintenance of the network, not just to repair potholes but to carry out major structural improvements as well.
The hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North made a point about 44-tonners, and the decision on them was taken specifically to match our European counterparts so that we are not at a disadvantage. There may be further consideration in that space, but we are not doing that at the moment.
As I said in my opening speech, the provisions will be reviewed every five years. We are hoping to see technological change, and we have already seen a major shift in the weight of electric batteries, for instance. As other products—perhaps not even known today—become available in terms of conductivity, there is the possibility of reducing the weight of some of these elements. Hopefully, in time, there will be a large change. As I said in my opening speech, the limits per axle are not changing; it is just the overall weight.
The hon. Lady talked more broadly about our road network. It is important to reflect on the fact that the UK Government are still investing in our road network and making substantial improvements. I was up in the north-west recently and saw a road being built to better connect Blackpool to the M6. It is a shame that some of the devolved Administrations across the country, and particularly Wales, are rejecting any form of new road building, especially when we are now seeing this major shift, in terms of our road network capacity, to low-emission and zero-emission vehicles. The road network has an important role to play in decarbonising our economy, while ensuring that opportunity for people is spread right across the country and that they can remain as connected as possible.
To conclude, I hope the Committee has found the debate informative and that it will join me in supporting the regulations, which will amend legislation to allow weight increases by up to 1 tonne for alternatively fuelled vehicles and by 2 tonnes for zero-emission vehicles. These changes are to support the commercial viability of those vehicles and to ensure regulatory harmony with our international competitors. Adaptation of these vehicle types will help reduce emissions from what has to date been a hard-to-abate part of the transport system, moving us closer to our 2050 net zero target.
Question put and agreed to.
Local Bus Services: Funding
Richard Holden Excerpts(1 year, 7 months ago)
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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.
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.
Buses: Funding
Richard Holden Excerpts(1 year, 7 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr Richard Holden)
With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I wish to make a statement on the steps that the Government are taking to ensure that bus travel remains accessible and affordable for everyone, while bearing down on the cost of living.
Let me start by summarising the situation as we find it. People across the country are facing massive cost of living pressures following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. That is why we have a commitment to halve inflation this year to ease the cost of living and give people greater financial security. For the bus sector, that comes on the back of a global pandemic that saw passenger numbers drop to as low as 10% of their pre-pandemic levels. However, bus journeys are now recovering to around 90% of their pre-pandemic levels outside of London. Taking the bus remains the most popular form of public transport, and millions of people rely on these vital services every day.
Local bus networks provide great access to work, education and medical appointments, driving economic growth across the country. They can be a lifeline for those for whom travelling by car or other forms of public transport is simply not possible. That is why over the past three years we have invested more than £3 billion to support and improve bus services in England outside of London. That level of investment was a sign of the times, but today, we need to move out from underneath the shadow of covid-19, where the sudden absence of passengers made it necessary for the Government to step in, first through the covid-19 bus service support grant, and later through the bus recovery grant.
We face a challenge to return the network to its pre-pandemic footing while confronting fundamental changes to travel patterns, but buses remain a critical part of our transport infrastructure for many people, especially outside London in suburban and rural areas. Billions in Government funding has been made available to keep fares down and to keep services up and running. Bus routes have been kept alive where they may have proven so uneconomic that they risked being scrapped altogether. Without them, whole communities would have lost out, risking people becoming totally disconnected, especially older and more vulnerable people. While we have seen overall patronage recover to around 90% of pre-pandemic levels, concessionary fares continue to lag significantly behind. We recognise that we can maximise opportunities to bring concessionary passengers back to the bus, and I will return to that point later.
Supporting bus services at their lowest ebb was the right thing to do. However, if the public purse alone props up bus services, that would not be a funding model; it would just be a failing business. It is not the business of this Government to allow our buses to fail. We must reform bus funding in the long term, and we will work with the sector to better understand the impact before moving ahead with any implementation. We must adapt to new levels of patronage, acknowledge that there are extremely challenging financial circumstances and balance the needs of taxpayers, the travelling public, operators and local authorities. All parts of the sector have their role to play.
The Government will play our part. Today, I can announce a long-term approach to protect bus services, keep travel affordable and support the bus sector’s long-term recovery. I can announce that the Government will provide: an additional £300 million over the next two years to protect vital routes until April 2025; £150 million between June 2023 and April 2024; and, another £150 million between April 2024 and April 2025.
Some £160 million of that funding will be earmarked for local transport authorities through the new bus service improvement plan plus—a mechanism to improve bus services while empowering local authorities to make the call on how services are planned and delivered. It comes in addition to the existing £1 billion of funding through the national bus strategy that has already been allocated. BSIP+ will be focused on communities that did not previously benefit from BSIP allocations. In addition, a further £140 million will be provided to operators through the bus service operators grant plus mechanism, supporting them with the services they run.
This package means that passengers can continue to rely on their local bus to get around. Alongside it, we will consult with operators and local authorities on measures to modernise and futureproof bus funding for the long term. This is part of the Government’s vision to improve connectivity through the bus services that this country relies upon. This funding and our bus vision will grow the economy, creating better-paid jobs and opportunities in every part of the country.
At a time when the cost of living is a challenge for many, we also recognise that price is a key barrier to growth. The more affordable travel is, the more likely passengers are to get on board. We understand that every penny counts. The Government stepped up during the pandemic with support for businesses and their workers with low-cost loans and, most vitally, the furlough scheme. Following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and the knock-on inflation caused by the energy price shock, we again stepped up. We have delivered an energy package of more than £90 billion, literally paying half the energy bills of households across the country, with extra support for the most vulnerable. We will halve inflation this year to ease the cost of living pressures and give people financial security. We will grow the economy, creating better-paid jobs and opportunity right across the country.
In transport, we also understand the pressures placed on people’s finances. That is why we cut fuel duty by 5p a litre, kept train fare rises significantly below inflation and introduced the “Get Around for £2” bus scheme nationwide and provided the funding for local authorities in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and elsewhere to do the same. The nationwide scheme was initially for three months until 31 March this year. I then extended it until 30 June. Today, I can also inform the House that the Government will provide a further £200 million to continue capping single fares at £2 in England outside London until 31 October 2023. After that, we will continue to support bus passengers with the cost of living. We will replace the £2 cap with a £2.50 fare cap until 30 November 2024, when the Government will review the effectiveness of future bus fares.
Since the £2 cap was introduced, it has saved passengers millions of pounds, boosted businesses and put bums on bus seats across the country. This decision builds on the Government’s help for households initiative and supports everyone through the cost of living increases, especially those on the lowest incomes, who take nearly three times as many bus trips as those on higher incomes. It puts money back into people’s pockets and keeps them connected to key local services. It encourages millions of passengers to get back on the bus by knocking close to a third off the average single fare, and more for longer journeys. Taking that forward, my officials will work with the sector to confirm operators’ participation in the scheme. We will also undertake a review of bus fares at the end of November 2024 to support the sector in moving to a sustainable, long-term footing.
In conclusion, what I have shared with the House today is part of the largest Government investment in bus services for a generation. It exceeds our bus back better commitments by half a billion pounds, providing certainty to industry, securing value for taxpayers, protecting access to vital public services, delivering our priority to grow the economy, and helping people with the cost of living. All the while, we will work with the sector to reform bus funding in the long term. We will work towards affordable and reliable bus services for everyone, everywhere, all at once. That is what the travelling public deserves, and that is this Government’s ambition. I commend this statement to the House.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)
I call the shadow Secretary of State.
Louise Haigh (Sheffield, Heeley) (Lab)
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I thank the Minister for advance sight of his statement.
Our bus services are in crisis. Bus users across the country listening to the statement today—waiting for a bus that never turns up and robbed of a service they depend on—will be wondering, frankly, whether the Minister is oblivious or in denial, and whether he understands the scale of the Government’s failure, even on their own terms. His party made promises that voters were entitled to think would be kept.
Two years ago, in the middle of the pandemic and when its effects were well known, the Conservatives launched their bus back better strategy. With great fanfare, they pledged a great bus service for everyone, everywhere. They promised it would be one of the great acts of levelling up. They pledged buses so frequent that people would not need a timetable. They said the Government would
“not only stop the decline”—
in bus services, but
“reverse it”.—[Official Report, 15 March 2021; Vol. 691, c. 50.]
Those promises made long after the effects of Covid were clear, and what has happened since? Last year, services fell by the second fastest level on record. Today, there are fewer buses on the road than at any time on record. Of the 4,000 zero-emission buses the Minister’s party promised, just six are on the road. Can that really be what the Prime Minister means by “delivery, delivery, delivery”? For bus passengers across the country, it sounds like “failure, failure, failure.” They are counting the cost of a party that simply has not kept its word and of 13 years of Conservative failure. In that time, 7,000 bus services have been axed. Those services were indispensable for connecting people to jobs, opportunities, friends and family. These lost connections have held back our economic growth, worsened our community life, and deepened our productivity problem. The Government promised transformation, but they have delivered a spiral of managed decline. Today’s announcement does nothing to stop that.
The funding announced to “support services” until 2025 is actually a significant cut—23% less than previous rounds of recovery funding and far short of what the operators have said is needed simply to maintain services. The consequence—whether or not the Minister will admit it—will be hundreds more services on the scrap heap. Even on the Government’s own terms, that is yet another extraordinary failure.
The Minister cannot hide from the reality with which so many people are living day to day. A woman in Hampshire told me she has to leave home three hours early for her hospital appointments to ensure she is there on time. There are students in Stoke who do not go into their town centre any more, because the bus back finishes at 7 pm. There are kids in Burnley who no longer have a school bus. What does the Minister have to say to them? Does he think their situation is acceptable after 13 years of Conservative Government? What hope does he have to offer them? This announcement shows that he is content simply to tinker around the edges of the broken bus system, to leave intact a system that gives local people no say whatsoever over the services they depend on, and to leave this country as one of the only in the developed world that hands operators unchecked power to slash routes and raise fares, with the people those decisions affect cut out altogether.
For years, communities have demanded that we fix the situation, and Labour will. Our plans will put communities firmly back in control of the public transport they depend upon. We will give every community the power to take control over routes, fares and services, and we will lower the unnecessary legislative hurdles that the Tories have put in their way. We will back the evidence showing that areas with local control and public ownership deliver greater efficiency, increased passengers and better services. Bold reform is needed, and 13 years into this Conservative Government, bus services are locked in a spiral of decline that communities are powerless to stop.
Today’s announcement shows that the Conservatives’ answer to this failing status quo is more of the same. After more than a decade of broken promises, the public will once again rightly conclude that the Conservatives cannot fix the problem, because the Conservatives are the problem.
Mr Holden
It was delightful to hear the shadow Secretary of State’s prepared attack lines, because I do not think she actually listened to the statement. We are exceeding the bus back better commitment by £500 million. I note that the hon. Lady did not mention the fact that Sheffield city region is getting £3.15 million today—[Interruption.] If the hon. Lady would let me speak, rather than shout at me from a sedentary position, she might actually learn something. Stoke, which she mentioned, has already had £31.6 million in BSIP funding. Hampshire, which she also mentioned, is also getting £3.6 million today.
The hon. Lady talked about her plan for the devolution of powers, but we have already done that. She does not seem to be paying any attention to what is happening in her own area of South Yorkshire, which has received £570 million. Greater Manchester is receiving over £1 billion over five years. That was never delivered by Labour in government, but delivered by this Conservative party right across the country. There are sustainable transport schemes and city region sustainable transport settlements—all delivered with money from this Government—[Interruption.] She shouts that this is about Labour Mayors, but we have done deals with Conservative Mayors and Labour Mayors. I do not care about party politics; I want to deliver for bus users right across this country.
That is different from the ideological approach taken by the hon. Lady, who seems to think that if everything was under total state control, everything would be better. We know from the past that that is not true. We want to deliver for people up and down the country. That is why we are extending the £2 bus fare, delivering for people on the lowest incomes right across the country. I know that the hon. Lady is in the pocket of the train drivers’ unions, but I suggest that she stand up for working people right across the country, the majority of whom use bus services.
Today, we are delivering £500 million of extra support and for an extra two years, not only for the cost of living, but for bus services right across the country. I think the hon. Lady would do well to follow our example and think of the long term, rather than ideological and political attacks.
Madam Deputy Speaker
I call the Chair of the Select Committee on Transport.
Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)
I warmly welcome this announcement, not least because the Minister has taken on board the recommendations made in the Transport Committee’s March report on the national bus strategy. It is right to focus on the necessary longer-term reforms, and I particularly welcome the intervention on BSIPs, which the Committee found were a mixed bag across the country. Some are working very well, but other authorities were not able to deliver a good plan. Will the Minister assure me that his officials will work with local authorities to design good new bus strategies for the areas that do not have one?
Mr Holden
I thank the Chair of the Select Committee for his question. He is absolutely right to point to bus service improvement plan funding as part of the package. We pledge to work with those local authorities, and will continue to do on delivering enhanced partnerships or franchising, depending on what they would like. My hon. Friend’s area of Milton Keynes will be getting £654,000 this year from the bus service improvement plan, which can go towards delivering the local services that are most under threat and protecting them for the future. The area will also benefit from the “Get Around for £2” scheme extension, and the £2.50 fare extension. Beyond that, on top of the money going directly to local authorities—not mentioned by the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Louise Haigh)—local operators across the country will be provided with money this year and next, including franchise operators in places such as Greater Manchester.
Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)
In principle, I welcome today’s announcement on fares by the Government. Anything that helps to make bus travel more attractive and drives modal shift is to be welcomed. [Interruption.] Just wait—there’s more!
In Scotland, we have taken a different approach, and extended free bus travel to include every Scottish resident under the age of 22. The feedback thus far is that we are seeing a big increase in travel among those groups, getting them in the habit of taking the bus and normalising public transport. However, when it comes to real investment and spending on bus infrastructure, I am afraid the DFT is still lagging well behind. Of the 3,500 buses farcically claimed by the UK Government as helping meet their target of 4,000 zero-emission buses for England outside London, nearly a fifth are funded by the Scottish Government, over whom the Minister has zero jurisdiction. He is using the success of the Scottish Government and others to cover for their own failure.
Incidentally, four weeks ago the Secretary of State promised the House that he place a letter in the Library setting out the details of the pledge and of delivery thus far, but we are yet to see that letter placed in the Library.
In Scotland, ScotZEB 2—the Scottish zero-emission bus challenge fund 2—was announced just this week, providing another £58 million to further enhance and improve bus services across the country, including in my own constituency. This will bring Scotland’s zero-emission bus fleet up to about the equivalent of 8,000 buses in England. In contrast, of the 1,342 buses in England outside London claimed as funded under the ZEBRA—zero-emission bus regional areas—scheme, only six are on the road. If I looked out of the window of my constituency office in Renfrew, in 15 minutes I would see more zero-emission buses passing by, serving passengers and contributing to the net zero transition, than are actually on the road through this Government’s ZEBRA scheme.
Will the Minister do the right thing, unlock the logjam in the ZEBRA scheme in England and at least try to catch up with its success in Scotland, and will he confirm that every penny spent as a result of this announcement will be subject to Barnett consequentials to allow the Scottish Government to continue their investment in our public transport network—investment that builds for an electric future?
Mr Holden
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his opening remarks, and I will address some of his later ones. On the Barnett consequentials—just to start off with that—all this money has been found within the Department for Transport. We are cutting our cloth without asking for more cash from taxpayers, which is exactly what we need to be doing in this situation.
It is interesting that the hon. Gentleman concentrated on talking about the ZEBRA scheme, which is not really the topic of today’s statement. It is interesting that he did not mention anything else because the Scottish national party is obviously not matching our £2 bus fare right across Scotland, which is quite a surprise. [Interruption.] Only people under the age of 22, the hon. Gentleman shouts at me, have free bus travel. People do not have that in Scotland; actually, it has no £2 fare cap at all. That is something we are delivering this year and will be continuing to deliver next year here in England.
In fact, one of the major bus operators spoke recently about the crisis of buses in Scotland due to the Scottish Government’s
“mix of ill-informed emotion and political dogma”,
while failing to help them meet the needs of reliant Scots—
Tracey Crouch (Chatham and Aylesford) (Con)
Today’s announcement is welcome, especially given that in my own constituency we have seen a vital rural route—the 155—withdrawn, removing connectivity and unfortunately increasing loneliness, particularly among the older population. There is another route—the 638—which is a school service, that is under threat, causing great angst for those who use it. The extra funding for Kent and Medway is appreciated, but could the Minister confirm when he expects the money to be allocated in order for the local authorities in Kent and Medway to plan ahead for the next academic year and save the 638 from being scrapped?
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.
Jack Brereton (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Con)
I very much welcome the much-needed investment in buses. As the Minister has said, we have developed excellent plans to improve bus services, supported by the £31 million that the Government have committed to improve bus services in Stoke-on-Trent. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is vital that Stoke-on-Trent City Council now gets on and delivers on these plans?
Mr Holden
I thank my hon. Friend, who raises a vital point. Some £31.6 million—one of the highest per capita amounts anywhere in the country—was given to Stoke-on-Trent City Council, which now needs to deliver on its plans. My Department stands ready and willing to work with it, including on any flexibilities, as it sees the situation change. His constituents will also benefit from the £2 bus fare cap this year and the £2.50 bus cap next year, and his operators will benefit from the extra financial support over the next two years, providing long-term sustainability for those local bus services.
Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)
The Minister will know that the real lived experience in constituencies such as mine is of buses being cancelled, buses not turning up and providers such as Arriva giving very short notice—not only to me as an MP, but to neighbouring MPs—about closing bus depots, and then going cap in hand to other providers such as D&G. There is now a legal dispute over TUPE between Unite and that provider. Other than illustrating the reality on the ground, the question I want to ask is: as Cheshire West and Chester have had no bus service improvement plan investment before, will it be a beneficiary this time around?
Mr Holden
As I said in my statement, every area that did not get bus service improvement plan money will be getting it this time, including both Cheshire East Council and Cheshire West and Chester Council. That will amount to more than £2.4 million—almost £2.5 million—for those local authorities to help them with bus services. On top of that, the local bus service operators will be getting BSOG plus, which will help them with route maintenance and expansion, if they feel they can do that. This is really good news for the hon. Member’s area, with the Conservatives delivering for the people of Cheshire.
Edward Timpson (Eddisbury) (Con)
Staying with the theme of Cheshire, may I welcome the £2.4 million announced today to support improvement plans for bus services across Cheshire? There have been issues locally, and that will go a long way to help plug those gaps. Does the Minister agree that this is an opportunity to consider how we start to evolve those bus services so that they meet the needs and demands of our whole population, including in rural areas? In particular, demand-responsive services are a way of trying to ensure that we have a bus network that delivers for people living in places such as Cheshire.
Mr Holden
My hon. and learned Friend is absolutely right. We need to look at the needs of buses, and the needs of the communities he serves, particularly rural communities. When bus service improvement plans were brought forward they went to specific areas, but they also ensured that somebody within the Department for Transport was working with local authorities in those areas to ensure a viable plan. I am obviously happy to continue to work with my hon. and learned Friend, especially with the extra money allocated, potentially to consider further interesting and innovative schemes, such as the demand-responsive buses he mentioned.
Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)
The Liberal Democrats welcome the extension of the bus fare cap, but it will not resolve the fundamental issues. Between 2021 and 2022, 1,100 bus services were cut, including 51 in the south-west, which will badly affect residents in my Bath constituency. Will the Minister remove the ban on local authorities running their own bus services, and give councils more powers over local bus services for local people?
Mr Holden
We are always prepared to consider different proposals, and I welcome the hon. Lady’s comments about extending the £2 bus fare across England. It is great to get Opposition support for that. I would also point to some of the positives that are happening across the West of England Combined Authority area, such as the £570 million of long-term funding to help improve services. There have been huge upgrades there, and coming over the next few years. A recent £7 million package of improvements in Bath means that buses run every 15 minutes, but we are always happy to look at further developments in the future.
Mrs Heather Wheeler (South Derbyshire) (Con)
May I put on record my thanks for the £47 million that Derbyshire has already been given for bus services? Will my hon. Friend explain a little more about the benefits of how that £47 million will be used, particularly in South Derbyshire?
Mr Holden
I thank my hon. Friend. She is right to say that Derbyshire was one council area that got a significant amount of funding in the initial bus service improvement plan allocations. That will be used to help improve bus services, and I reassure her that that funding is flexible and able to meet needs as they change following the pandemic, and changing patterns of travel. I also reassure her that in addition to that money, all her constituents will benefit from the extension to the £2 fare cap, and the £2.50 fare cap. Bus operators across her constituency will also benefit from the BSOG.
Mr Clive Betts (Sheffield South East) (Lab)
I welcome any increase in funding, however inadequate. The Minister mentioned Ukraine and covid—of course he has—but the reality in South Yorkshire is that bus journeys have fallen by 50% since this Government came to power in 2010. Given the great promises made by the previous Prime Minister but one about the expansion in bus services that we would see, and given that the Minister will have done an impact assessment on the proposals, will he tell us by what percentage bus journeys are expected to rise by April 2025; or will the measures simply slow the decline that has been taking place for the past 13 years?
Mr Holden
I am glad the hon. Gentleman welcomed the more than £3 million extra, on top of the £570 million we have already awarded to the city region, the major £44 million regeneration for South Yorkshire’s transport system that we announced, the £16 million for a planned fleet of electric buses for Sheffield and South Yorkshire, and the £8.4 million of ZEBRA funding. With a Labour Mayor running his city region, he will know that it is up to local authority leaders, including an elected leader in his area, to decide exactly how they allocate the money and what they want to do. In South Yorkshire car ownership has risen over recent years, and how that is managed is up to local leaders to determine. We are providing the funding, and it is up to local leaders to decide what they do with it.
Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)
Investing in bus services and protecting routes is obviously a priority for the UK Government, who have that responsibility here in England. That contrasts significantly with the Labour Government in Cardiff Bay, who are cutting grants to bus operating companies. The consequence is that in my constituency pupils cannot get to school, pensioners cannot get to town centres, and people in rural communities are isolated in their own homes. Will the Minister join me in campaigning to challenge the Welsh Government to follow what the UK Government are doing in England, so that my constituents are not exposed in the way they are?
Mr Holden
My right hon. Friend will know that there is currently a total cliff edge in Wales on 24 July—no plans for the future; no long-term plan, such as that in England with two years of extra funding; no £2 bus fare; and it is all under the devolved authority for 23 years of the Labour-controlled Welsh Government. I obviously want them to do something similar to what we have done in England, because bus services are vital, particularly for elderly or lower paid people, and for young people and students going to college and university. I ask them to think again about the way they treat not just buses but roads in general. We need proper long-term investment. But again, it is up to them how they spend their money.
Mary Kelly Foy (City of Durham) (Lab)
A cap on fares is not much use if a bus does not turn up. The Minister even stated on his social media this week that people in County Durham need access to a car or a van to get around. Does he believe that he is improving bus service reliability if providers are slashing routes and services?
Mr Holden
I thank the hon. Gentleman for her interest in my local social media posts. This Government, unlike the previous Labour Government, have already provided £117.8 million in bus service improvement plan allocations. I do not know whether she noticed the response I gave to the hon. Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist), but earlier today I spoke to Councillor Gannon, who runs the North East Combined Authority’s transport scheme, and he welcomed what we are doing. On top of that there is more money to come, and the £2 bus scheme announced today. But it is not all about that; this is about protecting local services. I am sure that when she—[Interruption.] When the hon. Lady looks at the amount of money—[Interruption.] She has called me far worse in the past on the House of Commons terrace, as we all know, and I thank her for her unreserved apology for that at the time. We are putting in investment that the Labour party never did, and when she looks at the moneys going into Go North East and Arriva North East over the next few weeks, she will see how much they are getting and how that should benefit local users across the great county of Durham.
Paul Howell (Sedgefield) (Con)
I welcome today’s announcement. As has been said, bus access is fundamental for many of my constituents across a large rural area, and the BSIP that is coming through, and getting around for £1 for the under-21s, is fabulous. As the Minister knows, we have an issue with service levels—he has been working with me to see what we can do. A survey has just gone out in Trimdon that suggests that accessibility is a much bigger issue than cost. Will the Minister continue to work with me to try to find better solutions and different ways of doing this, to get people the access to leisure or work that they deserve?
Mr Holden
My hon. Friend is right about accessibility, and I am fully aware of the issues he has raises with Trimdon. On accessibility more broadly, he should be reassured that with audio-visual alerts on buses we really are rolling out those upgrades right across the country to make buses more accessible to as many people as practically possible. He is fully aware of the £163 million pledged to the north-east for the bus service improvement plan, and I am looking forward to working with him, particularly on the cash allocated to County Durham, to see how we can ensure that, in particular, those delisted rural former pit villages really get the services that they need so that opportunity is spread across our beautiful constituencies.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
The reality, though, is that taxpayers today are paying much more than they have ever done for a smaller bus network. That is because bus operators have been allowed to play a failing system for far too long. I will give the Minister an example. The 375, which once ran in my constituency between Stockport and Ashton, was a marginally profit-making service operated by Stagecoach Manchester, but it played the system by splitting the route into two non-profit-making services and asked the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, as it was, for not one but two public subsidies. That, in the end, is what happened to save that service. When will he finally get to grips with the bus operators who play the system?
Mr Holden
The hon. Member will be fully aware that this Conservative Government have already allocated £94.8 million to Greater Manchester through the bus service improvement plans, on top of £1 billion to Greater Manchester for the city region sustainable transport settlement. On how buses are operated, he will be fully aware of the desire of the Mayor of Greater Manchester to go to a franchising model, which the Government have allowed and are supportive of. I look forward to working with him and any other local authorities that wish to move in that direction. What I will say, however, is that franchising services means that local taxpayers end up carrying a much greater portion of fare box risk. People need to be able to justify that to their local taxpayers.
James Wild (North West Norfolk) (Con)
Extending the £2 cap is welcome. Does my hon. Friend agree that as well as price, frequency of service is vital and that, thanks to the £50 million granted to Norfolk County Council, there are now more buses going to Castle Rising, Grimston and other parts of North West Norfolk? There is also a travel hub coming to Hunstanton, and there will also be new bus lanes.
Mr Holden
I thank my hon. Friend for mentioning Norfolk. It was wonderful recently to visit his fantastic constituency as well as that of my neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for North Norfolk (Duncan Baker), to see some of the improvements happening in terms of bus funding. I have said to all councils that, if flexibility is needed from their initial BSIPs, we are always willing to look at that. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising Norfolk, where there has been a really proactive county council driving forward bus service improvements as well as improving its road network, which is another issue that I know he cares deeply about.
Darren Jones (Bristol North West) (Lab)
Since 1 March, my constituents have been logging their daily experiences of bus services in my Bristol North West bus survey. Since then we have had over 200 reports of so-called ghost buses: buses that are timetabled but never turn up. What in the Minister’s statement will stop that from happening?
Mr Holden
The key thing is that we have provided tens of millions of pounds a year for the next few years for bus service operators right across the country. While the Opposition bang on with their ideological battles about who owns the services, I am interested in getting services delivered for the people. Already across the West of England Combined Authority area, £105.5 million has been made available as part of the Government’s plan to deliver bus service improvements. I have already said to the hon. Member, as I have said to all the Metro Mayors I have managed to speak to today, that I am willing to look at their bus service improvement plans and to be flexible with them if they want to change how they are operating things.
Cherilyn Mackrory (Truro and Falmouth) (Con)
I thank the Minister for his statement and for coming to visit us in Cornwall earlier in the year. Bus users in Cornwall are saving £5 million in a given year thanks to the scheme, and sales are actually up, contrary to what we have heard from Opposition Members. The users are a mix of tourists and locals, with the scheme helping them get back into work as well as stopping loneliness and isolation. It is helping businesses as well. Will he join me in thanking all officers at Cornwall Council who are involved in making this a great success, along with our transport lead, Connor Donnithorne, and the bus operators? It is going very well in Cornwall.
Mr Holden
I thank my hon. Friend for mentioning Cornwall. I had a fantastic visit there with her recently to see “Love the bus” and services locally. Cornwall Council has done exceptionally well with its initial £13.5 million bus service improvement plan and it will be getting just under another £2 million as part of this extra allocation. Cornwall is a great example of enhanced partnerships working really well to deliver for people, with more bus users and the £2 bus fare saving millions of pounds for local residents and tourists who visit Cornwall every year. I urge Opposition Members to look at Cornwall as a good example of where enhanced partnerships can really work to deliver for people and local businesses. This is not an ideological approach but one based on delivering for local people.
Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab)
In our north-west region, bus services have been cut by nearly 16%. It is not just about the funding amounts that the Minister is reading out; it is about the structures, as my hon. Friend the Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne) said. Nowhere else in the developed world do bus operators have so much power over routes and services. In my constituency, that has meant cuts to the point where some constituents cannot even use a bus to get to Salford Royal Hospital or to use other vital services. In Greater Manchester, we are fixing that, but does the Minister agree that only Labour’s plans would give all our communities the control that they need to hold bus operators to account?
Mr Holden
My understanding is that there is no plan for more money from Labour, and there was no plan for more money for buses today from Labour. That is just like what we see in Labour-run Wales, with no plan for the future. In fact, it is particularly interesting that the Leader of the Opposition recently stated that Labour-run Wales is a model for the Labour Government. What we see here is a Conservative Government actually delivering for people across the country.
The hon. Lady talks about powers. I am happy to work with the increasing devolution across the country, as I have done with the Mayor of Greater Manchester, which has had more than £1.07 billion in city region sustainable transport settlement funding, £94.8 million from the BSIP and more than £200 million for Transport for Greater Manchester and the commercial bus operators. I have said that I do not mind the model; she is obsessed with it.
Brendan Clarke-Smith (Bassetlaw) (Con)
I thank the Minister for his excellent and overwhelmingly positive statement, which will be welcomed by many, in contrast with Opposition Members’ doom, gloom and what appears to be uncosted nationalisation. Will he confirm that, without the cap, some single bus fares could have risen to about £6 each, as opposed to £2 thanks to the cap, and that that will benefit people who live in rural and remote areas such as mine in Nottinghamshire?
Mr Holden
I thank my hon. Friend for his question. He is absolutely right. In Labour-run Wales and SNP-run Scotland, bus fares are uncapped. In England they are now capped at £2. I point out that on top of £18.7 million of BSIP funding, Nottinghamshire County Council will receive another £1.2 million directly. On top of that, further money will be going to his bus operators locally to enable them to provide and enhance local services.
Stephanie Peacock (Barnsley East) (Lab)
Will today’s announcement mean more buses in Barnsley?
Robin Millar (Aberconwy) (Con)
I welcome the announcement. The Minister is right that there is a cliff edge, and operators such as Llew Jones in my constituency can only look on in envy at the levels of support being offered. We face a cliff edge in Wales. In particular, it is estimated that some 15% of routes are at risk of closure. The T19, which joined communities in Llandudno, Dolwyddelan and Llanrwst along the Conwy valley and beyond, closed in February, and that has disrupted lives along the valley ever since. Will he join me in pressing the Welsh Government? Given their generous settlement of £1.20 for every £1 given in England, does he agree that there is space for them to find funding from within their transport budget to support such routes?
Mr Holden
I thank my hon. Friend for his question. In England we have found money for buses from within our budgets, so I definitely encourage other parts of the United Kingdom to do the same. In Wales we have sadly seen a far too ideological approach, including changing speed limits across the country at an estimated cost of £32.5 million in implementation alone and potentially with major economic costs knocking on. The 15% that he mentioned in Wales is on top of what has already been lost. Wales cannot be a model for the future, and the Welsh Government really should look to the support that we are providing in England, including those lower-cost fares for young people, to deliver for people across the country.
Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)
When I speak to the metro Mayor of the West of England about the need to reinstate some of the bus services we have lost in recent years—bus services that might not be commercially viable, but are incredibly important for the people who rely on them to get to school, work, hospital and so on—he tells me that one of the problems is that often the money he is given is ringfenced or specified for particular purposes and he is not free to make decisions on how it is spent. Can the Minister assure me that, with the money going to the West of England Combined Authority today, I can go to the metro Mayor and say, “Please spend this on the buses in my constituency,” and he will be free to do so?
Mr Holden
The £2 scheme is England-wide, so that has been allocated by central Government. The cash going to local bus service operators—the bus service operators grant—is there for them to support their services. More broadly, the West of England Combined Authority has had £105.5 million. That is what it bid for, and it chose the schemes it wanted to do. I am prepared to ensure that there is maximum flexibility to preserve and enhance bus routes wherever possible. If the metro Mayor would like to speak to me further—I tried to call him today; he sent me a message to say that perhaps we would speak later—I would be very happy to speak to him about that and to have my civil servants work with him.
Andy Carter (Warrington South) (Con)
I welcome the Government’s announcement today on the extension to the £2 capped fare. The Minister very kindly visited Warrington earlier this year. He saw the transformation of the new bus depot on Dallam Lane, which was paid for in part by the town deal. However, 18 months ago Warrington Borough Council was given more than £20 million to acquire a new fleet of zero-emission buses. The Labour council is still to place an order for those buses. May I urge the Minister to use his office to put a rocket up the exhaust pipe of Warrington Borough Council and get those buses ordered?
Mr Holden
I thank my hon. Friend for his question and the charming way in which he put it. I was delighted to visit Warrington with him recently, and I will continue to work with him to press the local council to get on with the job and deliver for the people of Warrington, just like he does every day.
Matt Rodda (Reading East) (Lab)
Council-owned bus companies such as Reading Buses provide award-winning services. That has allowed it to grow its business and offer a very high quality of service to many local residents. For example, our No. 17 bus route has a bus every seven minutes and we also have night buses. When will the Minister agree to allow more local councils to run their own bus companies, and when will he agree to more franchising?
Mr Holden
The hon. Gentleman asks about franchising. As I have said, I am not ideological about that, unlike the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Louise Haigh). My hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Cherilyn Mackrory) mentioned her fantastic bus network in Cornwall, which is run by an enhanced partnership. I understand that it is quite difficult for the Labour party not to be ideological about these things. What I would say is this: do what works for your area, just like we are doing in the north-east of England, where we are working with local operators to deliver for local people.
Dean Russell (Watford) (Con)
I welcome this extensive set of measures to improve buses across the country, and I thank my hon. Friend for visiting Watford recently to talk about the challenges in my area. Does he agree with my recent ten-minute rule Bill on ensuring that bus users everywhere are consulted when timetable changes are planned so that they have their voices heard? Even if we do not legislate on that, will he encourage all operators to follow that process?
Mr Holden
I thank my hon. Friend for that question. I was delighted to visit Watford with him recently. I reassure him that on top of the £29.7 million that is going to Hertfordshire more broadly, there will be another £1.5 million of funding for the council following today’s announcement and, on top of that, the bus operators will be getting money to support local services. I encourage them to use the enhanced partnership money as an opportunity to work even more closely with local authorities to ensure that bus service users get to know first about any proposed changes.
Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)
I welcome the Minister’s statement, in particular his acknowledgement that in rural areas bus services are an essential lifeline for people who do not have access to a car. Unfortunately, in North Shropshire over the last 18 months we have seen bus services cut at the beginning and the end of the day, as well as reductions in frequency. Part of the reason for that is the low amount paid by Shropshire Council for concessionary fares. Will the Minister outline how local councils can be supported to increase the level of concessionary fares, so they are more evenly allocated across England? Will he outline in detail how my constituents will see an improvement in their bus service, rather than a further deterioration?
Mr Holden
I visited the hon. Lady’s constituency just before she was an MP and I am sure I will be doing so again. The £2 bus fare is operating right across the country. On top of that, we have concessionary fares for retired and disabled people. Those are there across the piece. Bus operators in Shropshire will be getting significantly more money. Shropshire Council did not get the initial round of BSOG funding, but I am delighted to let her know today that it will be getting £1.5 million to support local bus services. I hope she will use her offices to ensure that that is spent on local people so that they get the services they deserve.
Peter Gibson (Darlington) (Con)
I welcome the content of my hon. Friend’s statement, with the extension of the £2 fare and the news of additional funding for Darlington and the wider Tees Valley. Will the Minister join me in applying some pressure on Arriva North East, which operates the majority of services in Darlington, to further improve the reliability of essential routes and service punctuality?
Mr Holden
I thank my hon. Friend for his question. Again, it was a delight for me to visit his constituency. In fact, I visit it quite regularly on the way up to my constituency. He is quite right. I spoke to the Mayor of Tees Valley Combined Authority today. He was delighted with the £1.53 million extra that will be coming this year as part of the new BSOG allocation for Tees Valley, and he wants to work with local operators to see where it can be best used to support local bus services. On top of that, Arriva North East will be getting a funding settlement. I look forward to working with my hon. Friend and other colleagues to ensure that that cash supports not just current bus services but potential new ones in the right places.
Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)
Bus services in Stoke-on-Trent have halved since 2009-10, in large part due to covid, as has been reported by Richard Price, the local democracy reporter for The Sentinel. Of course, another challenge we face is that First Bus in particular has been doing a bad job of delivering good routes and reliability, which has meant that passenger confidence has plummeted across Stoke-on-Trent. We are grateful for the £31.5 million that has come in through the bus service improvement plan. What we now need is for the Minister to come to Stoke-on-Trent—he seems to have toured everywhere else across the United Kingdom—to put pressure on Stoke-on-Trent City Council to deliver on the plans the Government have funded and hold a summit to talk about creating a north Staffordshire transport authority to better connect places like Kidsgrove and Talke to the great city of Stoke-on-Trent.
Mr Holden
I thank my hon. Friend for welcoming the cash that is there and ready to go in Stoke-on-Trent for bus service improvement. I would be delighted to visit him and to speak with the council. On my recent visit to Stoke-on-Trent, I visited Stoke-on-Trent Central rather than Stoke-on-Trent North, but I will remedy that at the earliest possible opportunity.
Marco Longhi (Dudley North) (Con)
I thank the Minister for his excellent statement and all the measures contained therein, in particular the £2 fare cap, which many of my Dudley constituents will benefit from, just as they will benefit from the new transport interchange when it is built by this Conservative Government. Building on the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Watford (Dean Russell), will the Minister use his good offices to ensure, together with the excellent Mayor Andy Street and Dudley Council, that the timetabling by bus operators is looked into? There is a suspicion that a little gaming is happening, especially in respect of the timetabling of buses in the late afternoon and evening.
Mr Holden
I spoke to Mayor Andy Street late last night and will have further conversations with him in the near future. I will raise that issue with him to see if we can make more progress in that area.
One of the most interesting elements of the £2 fare is that it is for long bus routes too. Some of the cross-border routes from Dudley out into Staffordshire will benefit from it. It is not within region. One of the most important aspects of what we are trying to deliver is that it is for people who are travelling a distance right across the country.
Paul Bristow (Peterborough) (Con)
The £2 bus fare cap in Peterborough has been an enormous success, and I thank my hon. Friend for that. He will be aware that the leader of Peterborough City Council, Councillor Wayne Fitzgerald, and I are keen to start the electrification of bus services in the city. Unfortunately, the Labour Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority only seems to have eyes for Cambridge. Will my hon. Friend continue his support for me and the Conservative-led city council to make our plans to electrify our bus services a reality?
Mr Holden
Again, I was delighted to visit Peterborough during the recent local election campaign, and I congratulate my hon. Friend on his local successes. Today, we are providing Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority with an extra £2.3 million to support local bus services, on top of the support that will go to operators. I was delighted to meet council leader Wayne Fitzgerald recently in Parliament at my hon. Friend’s invitation. I look forward to working with him and my hon. Friend as we try to get the local combined authority to wake up to how important Peterborough is, as my hon. Friend never fails to mention.
James Daly (Bury North) (Con)
I thank the excellent Minister for his statement today. Let me give him a practical example of how the announcement is levelling up not just in my area but throughout the country. For £2, someone can travel from Accrington in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Hyndburn (Sara Britcliffe), through Rossendale and Darwen to Ramsbottom in my seat and into central Manchester. That is creating opportunity and jobs, and it is a fantastic announcement. I know that behind the figures, a lot of people will thank the Minister for making travel affordable and increasing individual opportunity for people throughout the country.
Mr Holden
I thank my hon. Friend for his point. I want to see people travelling not just from Accrington to Manchester but to Ramsbottom and Rossendale and out to Hyndburn and Burnley with the £2 bus fare. It is about driving connectivity, particularly for those on lower incomes, right across our country. I thank him for welcoming the scheme and I look forward to seeing him on the X43 soon.
Anthony Mangnall (Totnes) (Con)
I shall not take it personally that I think mine is the only constituency that the Minister has not visited. He is welcome whenever he wants to come down. We have launched a bus route in co-operation with GWR, which goes through Tally Ho. The 164 goes all the way from Totnes, through Kingsbridge, to Salcombe. It is a perfect example of services being joined up.
I welcome today’s decision on the £2 cap and the extension into November 2024, but I implore the Minister to use that time to create the landscape to allow more bus routes to be created. Within that, we need to look at deregulation and at more co-operation. On top of that, we need to launch the demand responsive transport pilot scheme in more areas across the country. Finally, we need to find a way not to charge 16 to 18-year-olds to go to school, because we want to keep them learning.
Mr Holden
I have huge sympathy for my hon. Friend’s comments about 16 to 18-year-olds. It was a decision made by the last Labour Government, when they increased the school leaving age, not to also increase the age of free bus travel. Sadly, that is a matter for the Department for Education. I encourage him to take it up with that Department, and I would be delighted to support him in doing so. Devon County Council will receive an extra £1.7 million outside the latest allocation, on top of the £14 million it has already had. I hope that it uses that extra money in the way my hon. Friend suggested: to bring together local services. Finally, I congratulate him on getting married at the weekend.
Paul Holmes (Eastleigh) (Con)
I declare an interest, as the Minister has visited my constituency too. Elderly residents who rely on bus services to Eastleigh town centre to do their shopping have had bus services disappear. That means that the town centre has struggled in the last couple of years. Will the Minister outline the support that the Government are giving Hampshire County Council? Can he advise me how I can lobby for a joined-up approach between bus operators and the county council to ensure that bus services return to Eastleigh town centre?
Mr Holden
It is true that I get around. It was great to visit my hon. Friend, too. The local authorities in Hampshire are getting £3.6 million for local bus services. I hope that that money, plus the money that we are giving to the bus operators, will bring them together through the enhanced partnership model that the Government are pursuing, to look at how they can better serve his constituencies. He is a real champion of transport in his area. I have visited not only the buses on his patch but the very noisy motorway. I hope to see progress on that before too long.