§ 31. Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for Transport what was the total amount of central Government grants for public transport in the major conurbations for each of the past five years.
§ Mr. EyreWith permission I will publish the figures in theOfficial Report.
In deciding the allocation of transport supplementary grant it has been our objective to make it possible for the PTEs to maintain a reasonable level of services in their areas, given realistic fare policies. But we will not provide Government money to support extravagant policies that shift the burden of public transport costs unfairly from the passenger to the ratepayer and the taxpayer.
Following are the figures
Central Government provide support for public transport mainly in the form of transport supplementary grant. The total of this grant paid to the GLC and metropolitan counties was:
Year £ million 1977–78 186.5 1978–79 197.5 1979–80 214.0 1980–81 238.1 1981–82 295.3 These payments represented grant at a rate of 70 per cent. above a per capita threshold in respect of the total transport expenditure accepted by the Secretary of State. The grant covered expenditure on highways as well as public transport but of the total accepted expenditure the following percentages represented revenue support to bus and rail services:
Year per cent. 1977–78 27.2 1978–79 27.8 1979–80 27.3 1980–81 28.6 1981–82 27.0 In addition some of the capital expenditure accepted for TSG was public transport capital expenditure—but it is not possible to distinguish this. British Rail services in London benefit from part of the Government's general public service obligation grant to BR passenger services.
There were also specific Government grants to public transport operators in London and the metropolitan counties, in the form of new bus grant and fuel duty rebate. Taken together these amounted to:
284W
Year £ million 1977–78 40.8 1978–79 43.9 1979–80 45.9 1980–81 56.3 1981–82 59.4 Local authority expenditure on public transport is also, like local authority expenditure, supported by the rate support grant. Since this is a block grant to all local authority expenditure it is not possible to say how much should be attributed to public transport.