Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department plans to include transport cost as a proportion of household income, service frequency, journey times and reliability in assessments of transport poverty in rural areas.

The Department for Transport recognises that rural communities face particular transport challenges. As announced in the Government’s Child Poverty Strategy, the Department is developing a new transport poverty tool to help national and local bodies in England identify where transport connectivity and affordability may be barriers to people’s access to employment and essential services. In developing this tool, officials are considering a range of data sources, together with the perspectives of academics, local transport authorities, community organisations and residents through targeted research, to understand better the transport issues people, particularly those in low-income households, experience.