Speeches by Lightwood.

“There will be rare occurrences when someone wants to establish a local authority-operated bus company from scratch. You are assuming, I guess, a whole service provided by the local authority. It may be that they create that as an operator of last resort, for instance, if they are unable to attract sufficient interest i…”

“That is the foundation. We want to do even more, obviously. We want to empower and support local authorities to make transitions, these decisions. With the funding they can choose to employ more, depending on their circumstances and the model they choose. I go back to the Jersey model. They did it with a very small num…”

“No, which is why we are putting investment in all local transport authorities outside London to support their capability and capacity. I think you have heard us say that we think that that would provide sufficient funding to employ at least one additional bus officer. We are working with local transport authorities to …”

“I think we are talking about building trust. You see the improvements; you build trust, similar to what they did in Jersey. They improved trust because they worked together on the franchising arrangement, taking advantage of commercial skill and knowledge as well. I will correct this figure if it is wrong, but 56% of p…”

“I disagree; there can be incremental improvements made by investment and the empowerment of local leaders to shape their bus services round their communities. That is possible. You have obviously seen that in Manchester—Greater Manchester, to correct that point. The work done by the Mayor of Greater Manchester has seen…”

“I am not saying it is not a Government priority, but there are various demands on the public purse. We are already providing funding through the bus grant, so local areas are able to use that in order to achieve the same outcome.”

“It goes back to whatever system is put in place. If you are to extend the ENCTS, at the end of the day it needs to be financially sustainable.”

“I hear what you are saying. It is a matter for the Treasury, and I will leave it there.”

“Yes. Without wanting to stifle that decision making, I think guidance is important so that those considerations are made. Perhaps even more, it is about communication about what the art of the possible is with the funding, so that people recognise the opportunities they have to use that funding.”

“One size fits all is not necessarily the best approach. Different demographics in different areas may dictate the priorities of the decisions in that area. They can already go above and beyond in local areas. There are commercial operators already doing youth fares in 73 of the 85 areas. I take your point that it can v…”

“There is a review being undertaken of the ENCTS, so we are looking again at that. It costs something like £700 million at the moment to give the elderly and disabled access to free bus travel. In any expansion of that, we need to maintain the financial stability of the scheme. Going back to my point a second ago, local…”

“That is exactly what we are doing through the bus grant. They can use that money to introduce improvements in the bus network, maintain services that are not commercially viable and improve bus infrastructure or fare initiatives in their local area. In 73 out of 85 areas, commercial bus operators are also putting in pl…”

“I think the initial drivers behind the fare cap were for a cost of living measure, and about recovery from the pandemic and getting people back on to buses. The £3 bus fare cap most benefits longer routes and rural areas where fares tended to be significantly higher. That is a good thing, but with the funding and the f…”

“Buses offer fantastic value for money in getting people to where they want to be. There was an intimation there about the fare cap. If we had not acted to change the £2 fare cap to a £3 fare cap, there was no funding beyond 2024 to maintain any form of cap. It was important. Unforeseen costs are always the worst to dea…”

“We are looking at three-year, day-to-day spending, and four years in terms of capital spending. That seems to be the direction of travel. Every couple of years, I believe, there will be a multi-year funding settlement. That will give greater assurance and certainty. It comes across so often. If I go back to my shadow d…”

“It comes down to the identification of socially necessary bus services, and the ambition of the BSIP in clearly articulating the vision there for bus services, and the development of bus services. Obviously, guidance dictates that you need to take into consideration the entire community, to make sure that there is a le…”

“Obviously, that is part of the work that we are talking about as part of the spending review; and, going backwards, this original formula is an interim formula. We are actively looking at how we continue to evolve it. That could be an area that we will explore as part of this.”

“Do you want to go into a bit more detail on the formula, Stephen?”

“Fundamentally, I want us to move away from the short-term funding models of the past. They created too much uncertainty and too many cliff edges. Obviously, future funding—here it comes—will be a matter for the spending review; I had to get it in somewhere. That will help us to review our goal to simplify, as I said, a…”

“We are not setting the definition of socially necessary bus routes. It is up to local areas to identify what they think is socially necessary in their communities, so it would be a difficult thing for us, but I take the point about whether there is enough funding to deliver that.”