Reserve Free Travel Scheme (London) (Hansard, 20 March 1991)

§ Mr. Harry Cohen (Leyton)
I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the London Regional Transport Act 1984 and to make other provision in respect of the reserve free travel scheme for certain categories of London residents.
When you announced your retirement the other week, Mr. Speaker, many hon. Members paid tribute to you. The difference between us London Labour Members and a lot of the other Members who have paid tribute to you is that we would like to give you a parting gift, and my parting gift to you is this Bill, which will offer you a free travel pass in London for the rest of what I hope will be your very long life.
The VAT rise in the Budget will hurt a lot of pensioners' pockets—but perhaps not your own, Mr. Speaker. At the very least, Parliament should assure those pensioners that they will continue to have concessionary travel arrangements. The purpose of my Bill is to obtain better travel pass arrangements for pensioners, to improve them and to guarantee for years to come that London pensioners will have a free travel pass.
I should like to give the House a brief history of the scheme. In April 1971, the London Boroughs Association began to co-ordinate a concessionary fares scheme for the elderly to allow them to travel at child rates, but only on buses. Some individual boroughs had local discretion over the criterion for eligibility. Subsequently, in September 1973, the Greater London council took over those arrangements and widened the concessionary fares scheme to blind and disabled people, and offered free travel to all people of pensionable age. Gradually, the scheme was extended further, to include free travel on London Country buses, half fare on Green line buses and half fare on British Rail from 1983. The scheme also operated for longer hours. It was extended to the underground in 1976 at a 20p flat fare, which became free in June 1981.
Unfortunately, the GLC was abolished by the Government. Only after immense lobbying by London pensioners and a threatened rebellion by Conservative Back-Bench Members during the passage of the London Regional Transport Act 1984 was the free fare scheme saved and the statutory reserve scheme introduced.
The problem is that the reserve scheme is not as good as the scheme which is in operation. It would take only one London local authority to back out—several Tory councils have threatened to do that in the past—for the current arrangements to collapse. In addition, local authorities have found that the cost of the scheme, now running at £110 million, has been rising beyond their control, because LRT has set fare rises well above inflation and has charged councils the equivalent for pensioners' travel. That problem is building up for local authorities.
If the current scheme collapses and we go over to the reserve scheme, there will be a worse service for London pensioners. For example, the reserve scheme does not provide any travel concessions on British Rail. It would start at 9.30 am on weekdays instead of 9 am. The period for which free travel is offered under the reserve scheme could be varied by London Transport under section 51(7) of the Act. London Transport might well vary it, for example, by getting rid of the free travel aspect.
Paragraph 51 of "A Bus Strategy for London", brought out by London Transport, says: 297 One option for change from the existing reserve scheme would be to specify the scheme in legislation only for the first year of operation. After that there would still be a reserve scheme, but it could be deemed to be whatever scheme was in force the previous year, rather than automatically reverting to a free scheme, as now. The implication is clear: the free scheme could go in those circumstances.
In addition, the element of local discretion for boroughs under the National Assistance Act 1948 would go, and that could have repercussions for some, including the mentally ill. The reserve scheme would be more expensive. For example, airbus travel would have to be included and charged to London authorities. London Transport would decide the charges and impose them on the boroughs.
My Bill seeks to ensure that if the scheme operated by the London boroughs fails, the reserve scheme, which is guaranteed in law, will give London pensioners the same concessions as they get now, which include BR travel and the earlier starting time to which I have referred.
I am also trying to improve the existing scheme by offering free travel instead of half fare on British Rail and on Green line buses within London. The whole scheme needs to be examined to counter the threat to pensioners' passes because of the Government's deregulation plans.
To summarise the aims of the Bill, the service to pensioners should be improved, the reserve scheme should be as good as the current scheme which is operated voluntarily by local authorities, the Secretary of State's power should be limited only to being able to improve the scheme for users and to help allay some of the costs, and LRT's responsibility for setting charges to local authorities should be limited to the equivalent of fare rises or the inflation rate, whichever is the lower. On top of that, the contribution which the local authorities have to pay for the pass should riot be counted in any poll tax capping or other capping arrangements introduced in future.
The Bill deals specifically with London, but I am not concerned only about London. I am not parochial about these matters. I want free travel arrangements for 298 pensioners to be extended to all local authority areas. There should be a statutory reserve scheme in those areas in case Tory local authorities start taking away the concessions which are already provided in those areas.
My Bill has the support of pensioners and travel organisations. For example, Age Concern said: an acceptable minimum level of service would be the currently voluntary scheme. A representative of the London regional passengers committee is quoted as saying that a main concern was to ensure the continuation of concessions already achieved.
The pensioners' pass is safe for this year, because the general election is looming, but after that it will be at considerable risk. It comes up for review in December this year. As I said at the beginning of my speech, all Londoners want the problems to be sorted out early. That is what my Bill seeks to do. It would guarantee pensioners a free travel pass well into the 21st century, so that London pensioners—including you, Mr. Speaker—can enjoy it well into their dotage.

§ Mr. Speaker
Who will prepare and bring in this excellent Bill?

§ Mr. Cohen
rose—

Hon. Members
Mr. Speaker.

§ Mr. Cohen
Yes, perhaps Mr. Speaker.
Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Harry Cohen, Ms. Diane Abbott, Mr. Tony Banks, Mr. Jeremy Corbyn, Mr. Tom Cox, Mr. John Fraser, Ms. Mildred Gordon, Miss Kate Hoey, Mr. Ron Leighton. Mr. Ken Livingstone, Mr. Peter Shore and Mr. Nigel Spearing.