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Concessionary Bus Travel Bill [HL]

My Lords, like other noble Lords, I broadly welcome the Bill. By providing nationally the benefits of the travel concessions introduced in April 2006, the Bill will enable many of the vulnerable groups in society to have better mobility and encourage them to shift to a more sustainable form of public transport. The existing schemes have been very successful. In Scotland there has been a 95 per cent take up and in our area it is about 90 per cent. However, I am grateful that the Minister’s friends on the Back Benches have left because I have some concerns about the Bill which I hope we can address in a serious way. I fear that, unless we do so, we will not be able to sustain the benefits in the Bill. I start by declaring two interests. Although I am entitled to receive a senior citizen’s card, I am one of the 5 per cent of those who have not claimed their card. As noble Lords will be aware, I am also the leader of a local authority. I have taken the opportunity to consult a number of my transport colleagues and PTEs. Like the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, my first concern is about funding. The Minister confirmed in his speech that up to £250 million will be available to fund the scheme. On what basis was the calculation made? Or was it simply a matter of putting up a finger and making a good guess at what it might cost? Given the success of existing schemes and rapidly rising off-peak fares, in particular—I think that until this summer off-peak fares in my area were increasing by roughly 12 per cent annually—the cost could be significantly more. The more critical issue is how we distribute the money around the country. As my noble friend Lady Quin said, the distribution of funding for the current scheme was particularly harsh to the Tyne and Wear area, which did not receive enough money. That reflects the vast complexity of the system of distributing money which makes England more difficult to deal with than Scotland. We still rely on the formula of my noble friend Lord Barnett, devised more than 30 years ago as a temporary, stop-gap measure, which determines the way in which money travels around the country. So some of the money in the pot for schemes in England ended up in Scotland, a little ended up in Wales and some went to the Isles of Scilly which, although in England, do not have any buses, so I am not sure why they need any money to fund travel concessions on buses. The Government need to reflect on the fact that the current funding does not reflect the high usage of buses in urban areas that my noble friend mentioned. I am not too concerned about the problem mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, about the system in metropolitan areas. PTEs are not precepting but levying authorities, so the money goes to the metropolitan and district councils which have to fund the PTE through a levy. Once the levy has been agreed, that is the sum that must be paid, so it is not such a problem. The distribution of funding for the proposed scheme will be even more difficult than under the current scheme. Additional patronage on buses will not be evenly spread across the country. Urban centres and tourist areas will receive a greater increase in bus usage than other areas. We need to find a way of covering special events. In 2008, Liverpool will be the European Capital of Culture; that will inevitably generate exceptional visitor numbers, many of whom will qualify for the scheme. We must make sure that there is enough money to cover that. We have to find a more sophisticated way of distributing the money around the country than the current formula allows. My second concern is about bus operators. Our experience is not as sanguine as some. As my noble friend mentioned, it is partly down to deregulation. It is the 20th anniversary of deregulation—an example of 20 years of failure. In our areas, bus fares have gone up considerably more than the rate of inflation and bus patronage has not increased, it has gone down. In London, the exact opposite is true because they retain the right of regulation. In Wales there is a perverse incentive for bus operators to raise off-peak fares so that they can claim more money in the reimbursement. We face the constant problem that where bus operators regard a bus route as non-commercial, they may withdraw the service or try and persuade the PTA or other authority to fund it. Ultimately, pensioners may have free fares but much less frequent bus services. On reimbursement, we must make sure that bus operators are no worse off under the scheme than they would otherwise have been. Under the current scheme, 44 appeals against the form of reimbursement have taken place in five or six PTEs. Depending on the results, significant amounts of public money could be at risk in those areas. We need to develop a workable model for reimbursement which will work across the country. I was somewhat surprised to see Clause 9 in the Bill. Given that the local government White Paper is in favour of devolution, the clause will enable the Government to take over and run a system which is currently run pretty effectively by local authorities. I wonder how many people other than civil servants believe that a system of travel concessions that people have to access locally can be run better by the Department for Transport in Whitehall than it can locally. I just do not believe it, and it is against the principle the Government are announcing in other measures. I support all that was said by the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, about the need for smart cards, which are the way forward. This is where the Government should play a role. They should make sure that all the bus operators and transport authorities get together to produce a smart card that works everywhere and has the most up-to-date technology. We need to do it quickly, though, because if we leave it too late we will not be able to do it in time for the Bill. I was pleased that when my noble friend introduced the Bill he announced that there were ongoing discussions with all sides to ensure the improvements in the Bill could be achieved. I welcome that, but again there are constraints, partly because of the Bill, but also because we are into the planning stage for April 2008, and unless we know exactly what the system is, it will not be implemented. It is a good scheme; let us hope we can work to improve it and ensure that it will be possible to give pensioners the benefits we all want to see.