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Transport (Greater Manchester)

I welcome the tone of the hon. Gentleman's contribution. The remarks he makes in this Chamber are always worth hearing. He makes a number of important points. The first of them is that it is important to invest in public transport before any congestion charge comes on stream. We have committed, together with Greater Manchester, that the vast majority of the public transport investment will be in place by 2013, when it intends to turn on the congestion charge. He makes a point about how the benefits—or otherwise—of the scheme will be spread across Greater Manchester. I have talked to the Greater Manchester economists who did the work underpinning this scheme, and they estimate that the economic benefits will be spread not only across the city of Manchester, but right across the whole of the city region—indeed, some of the outer boroughs will benefit most from the increase in the availability of labour to become employed in different sectors and jobs in future. The hon. Gentleman asked about the consultation. The method of consultation will be for Greater Manchester authorities to determine and take forward, but they have committed to an intensive period of public information followed by a 12-week consultation period, during which they will gain the views of people throughout each district in Greater Manchester and of business. They have set themselves the test of public acceptability, both in terms of residents and business support. The hon. Gentleman asks about the number of councils who need to support the proposal. It is good that there should be local devolution on these matters, and AGMA—the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities—has set its own rules that seven out of 10 local councils will need to support the bid for it to re-submit its scheme for conditional approval. This is an ambitious proposal that deserves the support of the whole House.