Local Transport Act 2008

Wednesday 15th November 2006 at 10:52

Introduced in draft form in May 2007, the Bill forms part of the government’s strategy to tackle road congestion and improve public transport.

The Bill includes provisions for local authorities to review and propose their own arrangements for local transport governance, and the right mix of powers to improve the quality of local bus services. Local authorities will be enabled, in the medium term, to introduce local road pricing pilot schemes to tackle congestion.

As the Bill has been through a process of public consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny, it is expected to have a fairly uneventful passage through parliament.

During second reading in the Lords, government spokesman Lord Bassam of Brighton introduced the Bill and explained that the Bill represented the government’s strategy to improve public transport and tackle congestion.

Bassam went on to further explain that the Bill is designed to deliver bus services that are more closely aligned to passenger needs; revise competition tests for voluntary partnership agreements; strengthen the framework for quality partnership schemes; and, modernise the traffic commissioner system.

Bassam also furnished the House with details of the Bill's proposals to update the existing legal framework with regard to road pricing schemes; provision to allow the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency to retrieve data from its foreign counterparts; and, to grant powers to local authorities to deliver transport that better met the needs of their local communities.

The Conservative transport spokesman, Earl Attlee, was broadly supportive of the Bill but expressed concern as to why local road pricing schemes were being legislated for in the Bill when national road pricing plans had been shelved by the government.

Concluding his comments, Attlee stated that he felt the "objectives of the Bill are reasonably clear and agreed".

The Liberal Democrat transport spokesman, Lord Bradshaw, stated that "generally this is a very good Bill" but he raised concerns regarding provisions relating to concenssionary bus fares, the licensing of pedicabs and the number of accidents caused by foreign drivers.

Transport minister, Rosie Winterton, introduced second reading debate on the Local Transport Bill [HL] in the Commons on March 26 2008.

She opened the debate stating that “reliable, high-quality public transport makes a real difference to people in their everyday lives.” She highlighted the ways in which the “Bill will improve bus services, the integration of transport services that it will allow, and the fact that it will allow better planning so that our constituents can benefit from the improved public transport.”

She described the changes that the Bill has been through in the Lords detailing measures to boost community transport and to improve the accessibility of taxi buses.

She argued that the Bill will empower “local communities to address the transport challenges that they face today and will face in the years ahead,” it ensures that the right powers are available at the right level to deliver the changes that are needed locally.

She also stated that the Bill is not about a national road pricing scheme but “about local road pricing schemes, if local areas want them.” She also clarified that any “revenue raised will be ploughed back into public transport even after the first 10 years of any road pricing approach.”

Shadow transport secretary, Theresa Villiers, moved an amendment which stated that the Bill will prevent free competition between bus operators, undermine service quality for passengers and fails to give enough weight to local consent for local congestion charging schemes.

She also highlighted that “buses matter” and the Opposition will do “all it can” to improve bus services. She argued that it is “not possible to make a causal link between the regulatory structure in London and levels of ridership” when facing criticism that deregulation would lower bus patronage.

She argued that local congestion charging should not be used to “price people off the roads” or used as a “stealth tax” arguing that the “freedom to travel is an important element of people’s quality of life.” She hoped that the Bill would not be used by the government as a “trojan horse” to introduce its “spy-in-the-sky scheme” which would put electronic tracking devices in the UK’s cars. She concluded that the Bill “fails to make up for the 10 years of Labour failure on local transport.”

Liberal Democrat shadow transport secretary, Norman Baker, stated that the Liberal Democrats would support the Bill but expressed concern about the lack of coherence in bus network outside of London. He argued that a standards needs to be achieved where “buses are reliable, have a good regular services, are clean and reasonably cheap, and people feel safe using them.”

He welcomed the proposals on community transport and criticised the government for shying away from national road pricing schemes. He stated his party would approach the Bill in a constructive manner.

Junior transport minister, Jim Fitzpatrick, wound up for the government concluding that it makes “real the government’s commitment to devolving greater powers and responsibility to local authorities.”

The question was put and the Bill was accordingly read a second time.

House of Lords

First reading: November 7 2007 [HL Bill 1]

Second reading: November 20 2007

Grand Committee: