Speeches by Lightwood.

“There is a degree of affordability there. Again, what is important to me is that we are able to empower local areas to make those decisions. That is important because there are differences in each and every one of our communities. It requires local knowledge and local connection with an area to achieve that. What attra…”

“I don’t dismiss it. It is a different approach, obviously. It is a different context. There is a much more centralised approach in Ireland. As I said, they have their own nationalised bus service there as well.”

“Yes.”

“Indeed.”

“I think it can. That is why we are doing the pilots: to make sure that we have models that can work for all cases. In all honesty, I appreciate the geographical restrictions in Jersey, but it has rural areas. That is a great example of where you can achieve franchising with a small number of staff, and because of profi…”

“Some of the main challenges in rural areas are around passenger numbers, obviously, and the commercial viability of those services as a result. Empowering local leaders to take control of those services is fundamental. We have talked about the pilots that we are doing, specifically looking at rural areas as well. There…”

“This goes back to the pilots as well, and making sure that the range of pilots that we are doing includes high rural areas and bigger geographies or areas with fewer people. Again, when you look at Jersey—I know we have laboured the Jersey point—they managed to achieve it on three to four officers. That is in stark con…”

“The powers that we seek to give local authority leaders allow them, under things like franchising, to look at the whole network. That includes urban and rural areas. Often, urban routes will be more profitable and they are sometimes able to offset the less profitable routes in rural areas, which is really important. Ob…”

“These pilots are not about creating a report, in all honesty. This is about creating practical tools for local transport authorities. As and when we create those learnings, and develop those understandings, we want to share them in real time with local transport authorities through things like the Bus Centre of Excelle…”

“There is an assumption when you think about franchising: people automatically turn to the Manchester model. I think we know that that is not necessarily, or most probably is not going to be, the model that all local transport authorities are able to adopt, which is why we are looking at different areas. We are looking …”

“There is an outcomes framework which we have already agreed for places like Manchester and Liverpool. We are trying to use that same model when it comes to other local transport authorities.”

“Our guidance to local transport authorities is very clear. When they are looking at the transport network, they should look at the whole transport network, including rural and suburban areas, and not just the urban areas.”

“I hear what you are saying, but I think it is in the interest of local transport authorities and local authorities generally. They want successful bus services. That equals social connectivity. That equals economic growth in their area. That equals young people being able to get to education, and people being able to a…”

“I do not want to dictate from the centre or take power away from communities. We need to give local leaders the power to shape their services. By dictating, you can almost miss the opportunity for things like community transport or demand-responsive transport by automatically making the assumption that the bus is alway…”

“This is about going back to the fundamental point at the beginning, about how we restore trust in our public transport and how we incentivise people to leave their cars behind. As I just mentioned, in Jersey—I will check the numbers—north of 55% of people have cars but decide not to use them at peak times because the b…”

“Ireland’s approach is really interesting. They are tackling similar issues to us when it comes particularly to the challenges in our suburban towns. That being said, obviously we cannot directly transfer their experience to England. There are geographical and population differences. Ireland has 5.5 million. We are talk…”

“It is important that we recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to fixing our buses. That is why we introduced the bus services Bill, which is designed to give local leaders the tools and the flexibility that they need to put interventions in place. I believe firmly, as do this Government, t…”

“First of all, good local bus services are an important and essential part of a prosperous and sustainable community. They will play a crucial role in delivering the Government’s missions, including on economic growth. As you said, Chair, they have not been delivering across the country. We inherited a really difficult …”

“Good morning. My name is Simon Lightwood. I am the Minister for Local Transport.”

“That is certainly our intention, and we are doing everything possible to make it happen.”