HC Deb 31 March 1971 vol 814 cc1489-90
21. Mr. William Hamilton

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps he has taken to prevent or reduce prices increases within the transport system for which he has responsibility.

Mr. Peyton

I encourage those operators for whom I have responsibilities to improve their efficiency and hold down costs, but prices are bound to follow costs upwards, particularly when wages rise faster than productivity.

Mr. Hamilton

Which is the more serious problem—increasing commuters' fares, to which the hon. Member for Bromley (Mr. Hunt) referred, increased living standards for railwaymen, or the elimination of subsidies for the commuters? Since the transport system is a public sector element, is not this one of the fields in which the Prime Minister promised to reduce prices at a stroke?

Mr. Peyton

The Prime Minister's promises are the more difficult of performance because of the obstacles left in the way by the last Administration.

Sir G. Nabarro

While thoroughly endorsing what my right hon. Friend said in his answer, will he bear in mind that, as the Worcestershire countryside and other rural areas are now nearly denuded of public road transport save only for an occasional heavy, empty, lumbering vehicle polluting the atmosphere, the answer is for him to reform the system of traffic commissioners to enable tidy, compact, speedy, mini-buses with cheap fares to run everywhere?

Mr. Peyton

I agree with my hon. Friend, but the bus industry is not the only industry which poses very severe problems for me. The legacy left by the last Administration—

Sir G. Nabarro

Rub it in to them, John!

Mr. Peyton

—was one of considerable losses and mounting costs due to legislation, the intentions of which were pious but the reality of which was absent.

Mr. Speaker

I should like mini supplementary questions and mini-answers.