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Thursday Volume 547 28 June 2012 No. 22 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Thursday 28 June 2012 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2012 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Parliamentary Click-Use Licence, available online through The National Archives website at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/parliamentary-licence-information.htm Enquiries to The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU; e-mail: [email protected] 425 28 JUNE 2012 426 Maria Eagle (Garston and Halewood) (Lab): Before House of Commons the election, the Prime Minister pledged to keep the free bus pass. We know the Deputy Prime Minister and his Lib Dem colleagues did not agree, and now we learn Thursday 28 June 2012 that the Work and Pensions Secretary wants it scrapped as well. Can pensioners be sure they will not face a means test in order to receive their bus pass, or is this The House met at half-past Ten o’clock going to be another U-turn the Chancellor has not told the Transport Secretary about? PRAYERS Norman Baker: The hon. Lady clearly does not want to take yes for an answer. I do not know how many [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] times we have to say from the Dispatch Box that the concessionary fares arrangements will not change over the lifetime of this Parliament: end of story. Maria Eagle: After the shambles of the last week, I Oral Answers to Questions am not sure that pensioners will be reassured by that commitment. After all, the Transport Secretary began the week by ruling out a U-turn on fuel duty. The fact is that pensioners are being hit now by cuts to bus services, TRANSPORT which Age UK and the National Pensioners Convention warn are leading to concessionary bus pass holders having no buses to get on. The Government were right The Secretary of State was asked— to respond to our call to do something for motorists, but as the Department for Transport has now admitted Concessionary Bus Travel to under-spending its budget by £500,000—the amount needed to restore bus funding—is it not time to show a 1. Mr Clive Betts (Sheffield South East) (Lab): What similar commitment to public transport and restore the her policy is on the means-testing of concessionary bus bus cuts? travel for pensioners. [114039] Norman Baker: If I may say so, Mr Speaker, that The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport question strays a long way from the tabled question (Norman Baker): I believe that you, Mr Speaker, and about concessionary bus passes, and if I were the hon. the Opposition Front-Bench team will know that my Lady I would not have asked it, because the latest ministerial colleague, the hon. Member for Hemel figures, out this week, show that bus passenger journeys Hempstead (Mike Penning), is unable to be here today in England increased by 0.6% between 2010-11 and as he is abroad at a piracy conference—or, hopefully, an 2011-12. They also show that bus fares outside London anti-piracy conference. fell by 4% in real terms between March 2009 and March We have no plans to introduce means-testing to assess 2011. I think that, on this occasion, the Eagle has eligibility for concessionary bus travel for older people. crash-landed. The right to free bus travel for both older and disabled people is enshrined in primary legislation. In the 2010 Airport Capacity (South-East) spending review, the Government said they will protect the statutory entitlement to concessionary bus travel. 2. Angie Bray (Ealing Central and Acton) (Con): What recent assessment she has made of airport capacity Mr Betts: I am pleased the Minister has dropped the in the south-east; and if she will make a statement. Deputy Prime Minister’s ridiculous idea—presumably [114041] because he can envisage situations in which a pensioner who qualifies for a pass, under a means test, gets on a The Secretary of State for Transport (Justine Greening): bus and produces their pass, and everyone can see that It will be quite a job to follow the Minister’s last they are poor enough to qualify. We would end up with remark. better-off pensioners not getting a pass because they UK Aviation Forecasts 2011 provides an assessment would be means-tested out, and the poorer pensioners of how demand for air travel in the UK is expected to not using a pass because they would be too embarrassed change in the future. We will shortly launch a call for to do so. evidence to look at how we can tackle that challenge of emerging demand. Let us be clear, however: the coalition Norman Baker: I thought the hon. Gentleman might agreement stands. This Government cancelled the last have wanted to congratulate the Government on giving Government’s plans for a third runway, and we will be £25 million to South Yorkshire yesterday, or on proceeding sticking to that. with the Rotherham to Sheffield tram-train trial, about which he has been so keen, and which his Government Angie Bray: I thank the Secretary of State for that did nothing to advance over so many years. answer, and I know my constituents will be grateful, The Deputy Prime Minister raised no such idea, and too. Does she also agree that talk about expanding I made our position clear to the hon. Gentleman in a Heathrow so it becomes a competitive international letter of 2 April. He is well aware of the Government’s hub is wildly misplaced? A third runway would fill up position. almost at once—and where would a fourth runway go, 427 Oral Answers28 JUNE 2012 Oral Answers 428 unless we were to look at possibly knocking down parts say that a Westminster Hall debate on rail-air transport of Hounslow and Staines, which I am sure would be links in the south-east took place earlier this week and entirely unacceptable? not one Labour MP turned up to it. Justine Greening: My hon. Friend raises some of the Road Maintenance very difficult issues we have already run up against with Heathrow as a hub airport. She also points out that these discussions and decisions matter massively to 3. Steve Rotheram (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab): What residents on the ground, and she is right that the question recent assessment she has made of the level of funding is not just about a third runway at Heathrow—about for road maintenance. [114042] which we have been very clear—because expanding that airport further would pose significant challenges to The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport local communities, which should be taken extremely (Norman Baker): The Department is providing £3 billion seriously. over four years to 2014-15 to local highway authorities in England for roads for which they are responsible. We Graham Stringer (Blackley and Broughton) (Lab): also provided £200 million in March 2011 to repair Airport capacity in the south-east has been studied in damage caused by the 2010 winter. The Highways Agency great detail for the last 50 years, and there is no further is responsible for operating, maintaining and improving information to be found. Is not the reason we are not the strategic road network in England, and this financial getting a third runway the deal done between the Prime year its maintenance budget is £755 million, excluding Minister and Boris Johnson to try to secure votes in costs associated with private finance initiative projects. west London, as a result of which the entire economy of the United Kingdom is suffering? I believe the Prime Steve Rotheram: We know that the coalition’s manoeuvre Minister wants to do a U-turn on this, and that he will of choice is the U-turn, so can the Transport Secretary do a U-turn. or the Minister continue in that vein by reversing the Department’s decision to cut investment in Britain’s Justine Greening: I am not sure whether that was road network by £3.5 billion? actually a question, Mr Speaker, but what I do know is that we need to approach this discussion with maturity Norman Baker: Again, I thought that the hon. Gentleman and from a long-term perspective. Given how much this might have welcomed the £20 million that the Department decision affects many people, not just in the industry, gave to Merseyside yesterday for investment in local but on the ground, it is not good enough to have a transport projects. I thought he might also have welcomed headline-driven, pub-style debate. What I have called the fact that in cash terms the Department is providing for now is a much longer-term debate to get some more for road maintenance over this four-year period answers that are not just right in the next 10 to 15 years, than his Government did over the previous four years. but will be right for the next 50 or 60 years. I very much welcome the fact that companies such as BA and people Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con): such as Willie Walsh are now starting to step up to the May I welcome my hon. Friend’s announcement? North plate and join that debate. I look forward to their Yorkshire has the second longest rural road network, response and those of many others to the call for after Lincolnshire, and the most extreme winter conditions. evidence over the coming months. How can we ensure that we get a fair slice of the extra money that has been announced? Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD): Will the Secretary of State confirm that the Government will stand by the Norman Baker: I am happy to say that North Yorkshire whole of the coalition agreement in this area? Will she also qualified for funding from the Department yesterday confirm that they will stand by the cancellation of the to help the Harrogate and Knaresborough sustainable third runway at Heathrow, as she has said, will refuse transport package.