This afternoon's debate has somewhat unusual parentage. Practically every hon. Member gets letters and e-mails about buses. Over the years, I have had meetings with many bus companies and have written to local authorities and, occasionally, Ministers on the issue, which has been one of many that I have taken up on behalf of local residents. However, I recently got involved with a social networking site on the internet called Facebook—I imagine that you do little else, Sir Nicholas—and young members of my constituency have been registering their views with me on that site. I wondered what young people in my area might be concerned about, thinking that it might be world peace, climate change or terrorism, but it turned out to be buses. They are the No. 1 issue that young people, perhaps in their early 20s, have contacted me about—not in ones and twos, but in droves. I was so struck by the strength of feeling among those young people, that I decided to do something about it. That is not to say that other people's views on buses do not matter, but the overwhelming volume and concentration of those young people prompted me into action.
I have a second reason for mentioning those young people. Many of them think that we in this House—present company excepted—are a waste of space, and so many of them thought that saying something to me on the internet would probably be a waste of time, but slightly thought that it might be worth their while, that I was determined to do something about it now that they have registered their concerns. Consequently, their concerns are being aired, we will hear an effective response from the Minister, I am sure, and I will feed back to them so that they can see that the whole process works and achieves something. That is why I am standing here today.
Some of what I have to say is about economic theory and how bus services, which are, in a sense, local monopolies, should be organised and what is the best way to run them. However, much of what I have to say will give a local flavour from local young people. I shall start with a few excerpts from what young people have written on Facebook. One wrote:"““the bus service to Bristol is very slow and expensive.””"
That is a simple point. We live in an area of market towns and villages on the outskirts of a city, and most bus services run into and out of the city, although there are some between. Many villages have poor services, especially in the evenings and at weekends, and those services that are there are not very frequent. The service is universally regarded as being quite slow, expensive and often unreliable.
Another person said:"““I am concerned about the terrible state of public transport in Britain…I have recently returned from living in Japan””—"
she goes on to say how good that was, and continues—"““I was shocked at the state of public transport here when I returned…Coming home at night the bus only runs once every two hours, on top of which the journey is expensive (six pounds return).””"
A lot of the figures I will quote are the cost of going from villages and towns in my constituency to the centre of Bristol, and return fares of £4.50, £5 and £6 are normal. Some constituents tell me that those fares are a significant proportion of their modest wages from a Saturday job, and others say that if they want to go to the cinema and a cinema ticket is £5, they need to double that amount to pay the bus fare as well. Others say that if two or three of them go out together, it is cheaper for them to get a taxi than for three of them to get a full return bus fare.
I have spoken to the director of Firstbus in the local area about those issues. It is easy to portray Firstbus as the villain of the piece—it is known locally as Worstbus—and that is partly fair, but it has to deal with congested roads and the local authorities that it works with must take some responsibility. The root of the problem is that Firstbus and other operators are private monopolies. There is a semblance of competition—in theory I could start the Steve Webb bus company tomorrow, get a licence and start competing—but in practice, a huge investment would be needed to compete against a big group such as FirstGroup, which has massive resources. It would undercut and outdo me, then jack its fares up again as soon as I had gone, so there is no real, effective competition.
There are areas in which it is good to have a vibrant, free market, such as with telecoms. We have gone from having one nationalised industry to having a vibrant, competitive market with entry and innovation, and that is great; I have no problem with that. In other areas, having a state monopoly is the only way in which to do things, such as with some elements of the health service, but the worst of all possible worlds is having a private monopoly trying to provide a public service.
Sitting suspended for a Division in the House.
On resuming—
Bus Services
Proceeding contribution from
Steve Webb
(Liberal Democrat)
in the House of Commons on Wednesday, 17 October 2007.
It occurred during Adjournment debate on Bus Services.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
464 c309-10WH 
Session
2006-07
Chamber / Committee
Westminster Hall
Subjects
Librarians' tools
Timestamp
2023-12-15 13:01:44 +0000
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