Select committee: Built Environment Committee
Recommendation 23
1st Report - Public transport in towns and cities
Published 9 Nov 2022
Paragraph 165
Built Environment Committee Public transport in towns and cities All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The end of the emergency pandemic funding for bus services could lead to reductions in bus services of around 20% from March 2023. This would have a detrimental effect on users, and risks hitting the areas most in need of further economic development hardest. The Government must take action to ensure that the provision of a good standard of bus services is maintained: there is a risk that cutting services could lead to a downward spiral of steadily reducing demand.
From: Built Environment Committee, 1st Report - Public transport in towns and cities, paragraph 165, 9 November 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 12 January 2023 (deadline 9 January 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government welcomes the report and says it agrees with the Committee on a number of recommendations, while noting, partially agreeing with or disagreeing with others.
- It agrees that public transport investment should focus on user priorities, citing 'Improving Transport for the User' as one of DfT's five strategic priorities.
- On a multimodal zonal ticketing evaluation, it "notes" the recommendation and says it is for local areas and operators to consider the costs and benefits of specific integrated ticketing solutions.
- It "partially agrees" on bus rapid transit evaluation, saying a Government-led post-project evaluation "would likely be of limited comparable value" and may risk breaching mode neutrality.
- On bus funding after emergency support ends, it "partially agrees", says DfT is "actively considering" long-term support from April 2023, and "hope[s]" to set out more clarity by January 2023.