Hours after his appointment as Shadow Transport Secretary, Gareth Bacon challenged Labour’s plan on bus franchising, which he said “appears to be unfunded”.
Mr Bacon, who was announced on Tuesday in new Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s first shadow cabinet, questioned Local Transport Minister Simon Lightwood during a committee debate on the government’s new draft Franchising Schemes Regulations.
The shadow minister and former Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice) said the Conservatives would not oppose the mandate to expand bus franchising and instead “support the idea of local areas having more say over the services they can offer local people”.
However, he added he believed there were unanswered questions regarding how much had been budgeted for the increase costs to the Department for Transport and local authorities. He says: “In many rural areas, and even in Greater London, bus services lose money and often require subsidies. Where will that money come from?”
The MP for Orpington adds: “If the answer is that we have not budgeted for it, or that it is coming from existing budgets, that can only mean council taxes going up, or cuts to local services such as social care or universal services such as waste collection. There would appear to be no third option.”
Mr Bacon alludes to the “insinuation of today’s statutory instrument is that [franchising] should be happening everywhere”, adding in conclusion “that is not to mention the fact that the proposal currently appears to be unfunded”.
In response, Mr Lightwood referred to the £640 million package for local transport authorities to improve bus services, which was announced on the eve of last week’s Budget.
Further, in an apparent reference to those comments on where franchising is seen as a solution, he argued that, even in rural communities, “local transport authorities are actually best placed to manage their local networks”.
He stressed the desire for these to have devolved powers and “take back control”, although he had earlier reiterated that this could mean “franchising, municipal bus companies or Enhanced Partnerships”.
