Bus Funding

Wera Hobhouse Excerpts

Monday 18th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Louise Haigh]

My hon. Friend is entirely right. Tees Valley has done very well out of today’s funding settlement, and I would encourage the Mayor to consider franchising options to deliver better bus services for the whole area. I can also confirm that through the better buses Bill we will be lifting the ideological ban on public ownership, so my hon. Friend can certainly consider working with his local authority to set up a publicly owned bus company if the Mayor does not choose to avail himself of those powers.

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

My young constituents in Bathampton who attend Ralph Allen school have to put up with an atrocious service. They first have to go into Bath city centre, and then they have to take a second bus out again, halfway back to where they came from, to get to school; they often miss school because of the infrequency of the services, and they pay twice. A direct service would be cheaper, better and safer. Bath council wants to make services better and franchise them directly, but the West of England Mayor is preventing that. Will the Secretary of State please urge the Mayor to listen to west of England authorities and allow them to franchise services directly and bring buses back under local control?

[Louise Haigh]

With her example, the hon. Lady describes exactly what franchising is designed to provide: the ability to design the services that people rely on and ensure that schoolchildren have a direct route to school. I would encourage all our mayoral colleagues to take forward franchising.