Bus Industry

My Lords, as this is my maiden speech, please indulge me for a moment and allow me to thank the staff of the House of Lords for the very courteous and helpful support that they have given me in the past few months. I have made a few faux pas and I shall almost certainly make a few more, probably during this speech. I am grateful for everyone’s help and support. I also thank my sponsors for providing me with this great opportunity to sit here in this magnificent House. I hope that I can make a modest contribution effectively. Twenty-five per cent of all European buses are based in the UK—105,000 buses in total—and they are 35 per cent less efficient than they were 20 years ago. These are staggering statistics which demonstrate gross oversupply and almost certainly a badly managed infrastructure. The Government, I fear, have not begun to address the legislation on the salient issues that need to be considered and, sadly, have not yet learnt that government is not a good business manager or long-term strategic planner. Regulated enterprise is needed, where investment and commitment by operators are rewarded by long-term contracts or strategic quality partnership contracts, with local authorities operating within guidelines overseen and performance-managed by a government-designated watchdog, which could be traffic commissioners, not nationalisation by stealth. Bus operators have carried out substantial investment in the past few years under tightly regulated controls, which, however, are about to be thrown out of the window because of concern over falling passenger numbers. London passenger numbers, though, are increasing. So what will the Government do? They propose to set up a franchising system like that in London and change existing contractual obligations. That is remarkably unfair. London has bus lanes, substantial subsidies from the mayor and, of course, the congestion charge. If the mayor cannot provide services as a result of that and a huge increase in passengers, he should be ashamed of himself. Talking of investment, he should certainly be ashamed of himself. It is quite remarkable that he has purchased a large fleet of bendy buses that he is now about to get rid of. That is a huge cost to the London taxpayer. Does any new regulation help to get to grips with long-term problems? Has an emissions programme been established legislating for cleaner and environmentally friendly engines? Has the safety of buses been reviewed? Why is it that not all buses have seat belts, when they are compulsory in cars? Is a strategy being developed to incentivise greater use of school buses? Currently we have serious congestion twice a day caused by people collecting children from school. In many parts of the country, parents are reluctant to send their children by school bus because of bullying, a lack of convenient stops and sporadic service. We have to ensure that school buses fulfil obligations to prevent those elements, and that there is a method of incentives to encourage parents to make use of the buses. What thinking has been done to work out what happens to those buses when they are not doing the school run? They currently sit idle in bus parks for the remainder of the day. They should be used for greater community benefits, particularly in rural areas. I am grateful to your Lordships and to the Minister for generously allowing me to make these points, which I hope will encourage the Government to develop a long-term strategic plan for the benefit of communities, passengers and bus operators.