§ Mr. Simsasked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the effect of his policies on transport in London on the provision of free travel for retirement pensioners.
§ Mr. David HowellI have already made clear that the GLC is to have powers like those of every other authority to continue to run its own concessionary fares scheme. The cost, again as in every other local authority, will form part of its total budget and it will have to decide its priorities within that. If it chooses to use its resources for other policies it regards as having higher priority than financing old people's concessions that will be its decision and not in any way a consequence of the state of the law. It will be the GLC's choice as to whether it prefers providing indiscriminate low fares for rich and poor alike, or whether it makes more resources available to use selectively in order to help travellers such as elderly or disabled people for whom public transport is especially important.