Motoring

I can assure the hon. Gentleman that I have had numerous discussions with my colleague, the chairman of the ITA, about how bus services can be improved across Greater Manchester. I am sure that he would agree that the chairman of the ITA is very keen to ensure that bus services improve across the whole of Greater Manchester. I was about to go on to a point about the disproportionate cost of motoring faced by people in rural communities. When public transport is limited or non-existent in remote rural communities, the people who live there are completely reliant on their cars. The situation has got worse in recent years because the closure of local shops, post offices and banks has forced people to travel further to access local services. That is why my hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) proposed a rural exemption on the fuel duty rise, based on EU rules, to help people in such areas. Rises in fuel duty are a blunt instrument. Although such a policy acts as an incentive for people to use public transport, that works only when there is a public transport alternative. Rises in the cost of motoring must go hand in hand with improvements to public transport, which is why the Liberal Democrats would dramatically cut the roads budget by 90 per cent. while at the same time investing more of that money in public transport. We do not think that the solution to congestion is the extensive building of new roads. Instead, we want to give more people the opportunity to access improved public transport.