Select committee: Built Environment Committee
Recommendation 24
1st Report - Public transport in towns and cities
Published 9 Nov 2022
Paragraph 183
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 system of competitive bidding for transport funding can be a drain on limited resources and there is evidence that it favours larger authorities with more skills and expertise. We also heard that the need to bid repeatedly for separate pots of funding inhibits long-term, strategic transport planning. The Government should examine the feasibility of transferring to a system of periodic block grants. Wherever bidding processes remain in place, they should be simplified to reduce the burden on local authority resources.
From: Built Environment Committee, 1st Report - Public transport in towns and cities, paragraph 183, 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.