Public Transport Authority for South Yorkshire

Gill Furniss Excerpts

Wednesday 27th April 2022 Westminster Hall

[Gill Furniss (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure, yet again, to serve under your chairpersonship, Mr Hosie. I thank the hon. Member for Rother Valley (Alexander Stafford) for securing this important debate. Improving our local transport links is incredibly important to me, not only as shadow Transport Minister but as a Member of Parliament representing a constituency in South Yorkshire.

I also thank other Members for their contributions. In particular, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley Central (Dan Jarvis) for his unique insight, given his role as Mayor of the region. In the face of lacklustre central Government support, he has delivered on local priorities, as he outlined in his speech. That includes an investment of £87 million in active travel by 2023, £100 million for our trams and millions for bus concessions to make affordable for young people.

Concerning governance, the mayoral combined authority already has a strategic role in transport policy. The reality is that more powers are not enough without the proper funding to back them up, and I am pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield South East (Mr Betts) made that point eloquently. Time and again, our critical public transport services have been left to wither way under this Government. The hon. Member for Rother Valley must recognise that this Government have been in power for 12 years now, and this is where we are.

Post-pandemic, our public transport links should be driving our economic recovery, but instead timetables are failing to return to their pre-pandemic levels and the Government have been asleep at the wheel. Bus coverage is at its lowest level in decades and our communities have been left behind.

At a regional level, my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield South East recently conducted a review of bus services in South Yorkshire for the Mayor. His findings presented a series of challenges facing public transport services. He identified that bus miles in South Yorkshire fell by an average of 12% between 2010 and 2017 alone. He also highlighted issues of reliability, with over 60% of respondents saying that they were dissatisfied with services in the region. Passengers are therefore forced to take cars and taxis, modes of transport that are more expensive and worse for our planet.

The mayoral combined authority has taken bold steps to improve transport links. Its transport strategy sets out a comprehensive plan to connect our major urban and economic growth centres, and promotes our rural and visitor economies. Despite this Government’s rhetoric, they are failing to step up to these challenges. The national bus strategy is simply more hot air, and yet another missed opportunity to support our transport links.

Between 2009 and 2020, Government spending on public transport across the UK was cut by £1.5 billion. The Prime Minister said that £3 billion would be made available to

“level up buses…towards London standards.”

The funding has been slashed to less than half of that original figure for the next three years. Furthermore, Transport for the North is set to lose 40% of its core funding in the next financial year. This will undoubtedly have an impact on services and passenger experiences. This is not levelling up but holding back our communities at a time when we should be unleashing their full potential.

I once again thank all Members who have contributed to this debate. I hope it feeds into the wider discussion on the future of our transport networks in South Yorkshire. Labour in power is delivering for our public transport. The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority keeps investing in these vital links, but that is not being backed up by the funding they need from central Government. The reality is that while the Government are too mired in scandal to tackle these important issues, Labour offers a clear alternative.

Labour would invest in the infrastructure our communities depend on as part of our contract with the British people. I conclude by quoting my hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion), who said that people out there just want a reliable bus service.