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Local Transport

About halfway. Let us leave capital funding and move on to revenue funding briefly. Atkins found that the lack of revenue funding was a major barrier to the implementation and maintenance of transport schemes. The Government often speak about local revenue funding of transport to promote social policy objectives, but the shortage is affecting bus and community transport. Last year the concessionary travel scheme for over-60s was introduced in local areas. The Government provided £350 million. When I telephoned 20 local authorities to check whether their allocated funding out of that money would cover the extra cost of the scheme, 19 said no and one was not sure. The £250 million that the Government have announced to implement the national scheme will clearly exacerbate the revenue funding problems for local authorities. Perhaps we should not worry too much about revenue funding, however, because riding over the horizon to the rescue comes the Lyons inquiry. So far Crossrail, Thameslink and funding for pretty much everything else has been held up while we await Sir Michael’s report. Whether it proves to be the universal panacea remains to be seen. The report has taken two and a half years to reach fruition. We have no idea what he is going to recommend on the ability to raise local funds for local projects or what he is going to say about local business taxation for local transport projects. The Lyons report carries the hopes of many, but let us hope it is not an Eddington—promising much and delivering little. The conclusion one must reach if one looks at the Select Committee report and the history of the Government when examining their record on local transport and funding is that the Department for Transport says that it looks to local authorities to implement local schemes, but in reality it only looks to local authorities if those schemes comply with Government prescription and Government national priorities. Local transport plans are rated against national objectives and stand no chance of receiving funding unless they meet them. The reality is that the Department looks to local authorities to implement national priorities. That was reinforced by the Committee’s earlier observation:"““While the Department insists that councils are free to set their own priorities, this does not match the local authority interpretation of the guidance and assessment for funding.””" In addition—[Interruption.] I am still taking less time than the hon. Member for Manchester, Blackley. TIF is even worse. Any local authority can have the temerity to submit a bid based on its local needs, but it will be refused unless it fulfils a narrow set of national priorities. Be it phase 1 or phase 2 of local transport plans or TIF, little about transport planning or funding under this Government is local. The conclusion from the Select Committee report and the conclusion tonight is that this is a Government who talk local but act central.