Concessionary Bus Travel Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 6: 6: After Clause 3, insert the following new Clause— ““Reimbursement of travel concession authorities Where a travel concession authority has responsibility for the administration of the national concession including the reimbursement of operators as defined under section 3(2), the Secretary of State shall reimburse the authority the full costs of doing so, including capital and set-up costs.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, we now come to a slightly difficult point. The Government have willed the end that elderly people and others will have concessions but they have not willed the means to the local authorities which have to pay the bus operators for the concessions that people enjoy. I have been talking to bus operators and local authorities in the past few days. We are in a situation where some authorities have large concession bills and are struggling to pay for them, and other local authorities are getting too much money. It is probably the case that the Government have made sufficient money available, but the method of distribution through the rate support grant can cause difficulties for concession authorities receiving the money. I shall not wax lyrical, but the rate support grant is a crude method of dividing up the available resource between the local authorities concerned. This relates to many things, but the number of elderly persons using buses is probably not one of them. In any case, it comes into conflict with the Government’s policy relating to the floors and ceilings which are applied to local authorities when the rate support grant settlement is made and when they set their council tax. We are aware that local authorities—the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, will speak for himself, I am sure—have a responsibility to pay for things but that other rules prevent them from receiving any money. We are firmly in favour of the Bill. We believe in the travel concessions that have been granted. We are not quarrelling with the end; we are quarrelling with the means that the Government have chosen. It is essential before more money is pumped in at one end that the method of distribution at the other is faced up to. As the Bill progresses on its parliamentary course, the Government must take careful notice and table some amendments that will make it work. There is a real problem: a real problem for pensioners anda real problem for local authorities. It is the Government's responsibility to come forward with a proper mechanism to fund the scheme. I beg to move.