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Public Transport

I share the concern of my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton). Would it not have been better if the Government had said that, for the first couple of years, local authorities would be able to work out their costs, indent for them, and then have an evaluation and a formula? Instead, we will have winners and losers and will have to work out what to do about that. If local authorities could claim their actual costs, it would be much fairer to our rate payers, nearly half of whom are elderly and are having to bear the costs of the Government's error.