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Concessionary Bus Travel Bill [HL]

My Lords, I, too, welcome the Bill and this opportunity to comment on it. I also welcome the approach to the whole issue that was outlined by the Minister when he introduced the Bill. My interest in concessionary bus travel led me, when I was a Member of the other place, to introduce a Bill, in the autumn of 2003, that was very much along the lines of this Bill. At that time, my Bill attracted much Back-Bench support and demonstrated a strong level of dissatisfaction with the situation at that time: concessionary bus travel arrangements were very patchy across the country and could genuinely be described as involving a postcode lottery. Having introduced the Bill, I had a meeting with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, at which he undertook to look at the matter carefully. Some time afterwards, I was delighted, along with others, when he announced appropriate measures in his 2004 Budget. What is being proposed was always an affordable and sensible measure with obvious nationwide benefits. Indeed, survey after survey of older people, particularly those on low incomes, has identified transport—its cost, affordability and availability—as an important issue for that section of the population. It had an obvious link with their quality of life. The Minister mentioned the cost involved, which he put at something like £350 million. That compares very favourably with many other transport commitments that the Government have entered into. I remember when I introduced my Bill that the Government announced a costing of, I believe, an extra £340 million for London Transport in connection with the preparation of the bid for the Olympics—at that stage, we had not been fortunate enough to have won the bid. It struck me then that that was a very good example of how affordable this measure was; it would have such obvious nationwide benefits. The principal step forward was taken by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 2004 Budget. Nonetheless, the Bill is important in several respects, not least in the key change of removing the artificial barriers that local authority boundaries impose on the beneficiaries of concessionary travel. Important, too, is the change to allow for reciprocal arrangements across the UK—the subject of the exchange between the Minister and my noble friend Lord Foulkes. I therefore very much welcome the Bill as a whole, but in speaking today I shall focus particularly on the application of the Bill’s provisions to my own part of the country, the north-east, and in particular to the Tyne and Wear metro system that serves the Tyne and Wear conurbation. Originally, as the Minister will know, the Tyne and Wear metro system was designed as an integrated transport system in the late 1970s. Unfortunately, not long after it was set up, two separate blows affected it very badly. The first was the abolition of the metropolitan county, which was the co-ordinating authority for the metro system. The second was bus deregulation a few years later. I recall a valiant effort at the time in your Lordships’ House to exempt the Tyne and Wear system from the effects of bus deregulation, but unfortunately that effort was ultimately unsuccessful. I do not mention bus deregulation and the Tyne and Wear system primarily from an ideological perspective, although ideological arguments raged about bus deregulation when it was brought in. The opposition to it in my area, particularly these days, has been based very much on the fact that it adversely affected what had been designed as an integrated bus and rail system. There was obvious congestion, which greatly concerned business in particular in our region because competing buses were crossing the River Tyne at the various river crossing points, greatly adding to the congestion across Tyne and Wear as a whole. This is still a problem today, although, given the approaches that the Government have been outlining recently, we can see improvements and can look forward to more improvements in the years to come. Ironically at the time of bus deregulation, the GLC and London were exempt. I contend that the London solution would have helped Tyne and Wear all along. Interestingly, the noble Lord, Lord Low of Dalston, mentioned the comparisons between London and the rest of the country, and I very much agreed with his points about that. Indeed, absolute parity with London in financial support and the regulatory regime would still be the best way forward for my part of the country. When the Chancellor’s measures first came into effect in the north-east, sadly the immediate impact was not as positive as many of us who had been urging the concessionary travel arrangements to be brought in had hoped. The reason, as I am sure the Minister will know, is that the measures applied to buses but not to trains in the metro system. Given that the whole system was integrated, it obviously made sense for concessionary travel to apply to all passengers on the metro system, whether travelling by bus or train, but instead a financial penalty was incurred, which made the situation very difficult. The good news about concessionary travel was more than offset by the negative news about cuts in other services—particularly the deterioration in the teen discount travel arrangements, the axing of 11 of the subsidised routes of the Tyne and Wear system, and increases in child fares—in order to finance the concessionary travel scheme. All these measures were, of course, accompanied by very unfavourable publicity. I am glad to say that the Government did listen to representations from local Members of Parliament, local businesses and local authorities in the area, and came partly to their rescue and allowed the concessionary travel scheme to go ahead. It is certainly true that the situation in Tyne and Wear has improved. Nexus, the Tyne and Wear operator, has brought in a gold card, which costs £8 a year and entitles holders to free travel within the system. Because of government help, some services that were cut are being restored. The Government have also helped greatly through the outcome of the Eddington report and the measures that they want to bring in for better rationalisation and organisation of the transport system in such a distinct travel-to-work area as Tyne and Wear. However, there are ongoing concerns and I echo some of the comments made by previous speakers. I would like to see the hours of concessionary travel in London available elsewhere. The noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, referred to the rate support grant and how the measures are financed. This relates to population levels, but it does not relate to public transport usage levels in areas such as Tyne and Wear, which has a lower level of car ownership. We want to promote people using public transport rather than discouraging them from doing so, which has financial implications. The future investment plans of the Tyne and Wear system also ought to be looked at favourably by the Government in order to ensure that the future of a somewhat ageing system will be assured. Because of the timeliness of this Bill, I urge the Government to look at the Tyne and Wear situation carefully and support it in a way that does not just bring it closer to parity with the London transport regime, but also helps to promote the original integrated transport concept in that area, which I believe is as valid today as it was when it was introduced. In conclusion, I strongly welcome the Bill, but I would like renewed assurances from my noble friend that it will be part of a transport policy for areas like mine which will promote a well organised and resourced public transport system and will do so in a way that helps and not hinders the wider economic, environmental and social objectives which the Government have so rightly set themselves.