§ Mr. GunnellTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what will be the level of Government funding to each of the PTEs, via the relevant district or regional councils, for payment of Railtrack charges for 1994–95.
(2) what is the total section 20 spending for each PTA area for 1994–95 and that planned for 1995–96 and 1996–97.
§ Mr. FreemanFigures are not available for planned section 20 spending in each passenger transport authority area. It is for each passenger transport executive to determine the level of local rail services to be provided, in the light of PTA policies for its area.
Assistance to local authority programmes is given through revenue support grant paid by the Department of the Environment in England and the Scottish Office in Scotland. An amount is provided within the all other services block for distribution to district councils in the six English metropolitan county areas in respect of their responsibility for supporting local rail services. For 1994–95 this element will be £112.9 million. In Scotland an amount is included in the aggregate external finance settlement, which for 1994–95 amounts to £35.2 million in respect of supported rail services in the Strathclyde region. These figures reflect estimates of the cost of maintaining services made on the basis of the railway charging principles applicable up to March 1994.
Under the new railway charging systems introduced on 1 April 1994 we expect the headline cost to PTEs of maintaining their existing service levels to increase. We have undertaken to cover the increased cost in 1994–95 by making special grant payments to the six PTAs in England and through similar payments to Strathclyde regional council. These will be sufficient, when taken together with the sums provided through the local government finance system, to cover the full cost to PTEs of maintaining their service levels, including the access charges relating to their services. For 1994–95 the PTEs will not be making payments direct to Railtrack for the access charges attributable to their rail services, but will be paying the subsidy required by BR to run the trains. BR, in turn, will pay access charges to Railtrack.
Thereafter, we intend to enhance the support provided through the local government finance system to reflect the net increase in the level of support required to maintain existing services in future years.