Local Transport Bill [HL]

I was around during the passage of the 2000 Bill. It seems like only yesterday. It is a matter of record—this is the great benefit of Hansard—that I said at some length that without fares and frequencies in quality partnerships, you would not achieve anything in a statutory quality partnership that you could not do with a voluntary one. That has proved to be the case. The many successful quality partnerships are, with one exception, all voluntary. I also recall saying at the time that the test for introducing quality contracts was so stringent that no one would bring them in. That has proved to be the case. I make those points partly to remind myself and be smug about it, because it is always nice to say I told you so. More usefully, I urge the Government not to carry on in the same way when something clearly has not delivered what they were hoping for in 2000. The stated aims have not been achieved. I have a lot of sympathy with the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, on the previous group of amendments. I would prefer voluntary arrangements. However, if we make quality contracts impossible—I would prefer that they were not used on the whole, if possible—the noble Lord should consider what might happen in areas that are seriously considering the introduction of road user charging. That really worries me, because it transforms the landscape in a way that we have not understood before. In London, the only reason that the Mayor could even consider introducing a congestion charge was that he was controlling public transport. If the Government really believe that there are local authority areas that need to introduce road user charging to manage congestion, giving them the option of a quality contract may be the only way in which they can introduce it. Otherwise, the local authority will be charging citizens for something that they previously enjoyed, but will not be able to guarantee the improvements in public transport that citizens will expect to be part of the deal. The Government need to think very carefully about the relationship between the two. If they are not prepared to make quality contracts useable and capable of being developed, they probably ought not to expect road user charging.