HC Deb 12 February 1996 vol 271 cc637-8
4. Mr. Pike

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on bus deregulation in the Burnley and Pendle area. [13021]

Mr. Norris

Deregulation has brought great benefits to bus travellers in Burnley and Pendle, as it has to those elsewhere in the country. Generally, there are more operators running more bus miles at lower cost, with new buses on many routes, and involving significantly less public subsidy than before.

Mr. Pike

Does the Minister accept that the Liberal-controlled Pendle council's sale of its 50 per cent. stake in Burnley and Pendle Transport to Stagecoach will mean that Stagecoach will have a virtual monopoly in the running of transport in the Burnley area? Should that not be referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission? Will the Minister confirm that whether Burnley council should sell its 50 per cent. stake is completely for it to decide?

Mr. Norris

Far be it from me to intrude on private grief, but, as it happens, the regulatory authorities—not my Department—are satisfied that there is no impediment to Pendle council's sale of its stake. The position that Burnley chooses to adopt is entirely up to it. It is under no compulsion to sell, although logic and common sense should have advised it to sell a long time ago.

Mr. Allen

Does the Minister accept that bus deregulation has led to serious problems in Burnley and Pendle and, indeed, in many other cities and towns? Will he join us in discussing the appropriate shape of re-regulation in Burnley and Pendle and elsewhere with the bus industry, local authorities and passengers, so that we can develop a stable, long-term framework for the bus industry over the next decade? Does he agree that the need for an expanding bus industry should be placed over short-term, ideological dogma?

Mr. Norris

One of the hon. Gentleman's endearing characteristics is his ability to get to the point about five months after everybody else—not least, these days, members of his own party, who, in their local authority guise, and as members of the bus working group which I chair, have agreed with me on a way forward. It is significant that neither they nor the all-party Select Committee report on the bus industry proposed going back to the old days of regulation, because it is recognised by all that those were not days to which anyone interested in developing the bus industry would wish to return.