Labour
will overturn the Government’s ban on council-owned bus companies as part of a
wider strategy to put the public back into buses and deliver affordable,
greener, and accessible transport.

Labour
unveiled its bus strategy to put people not private profit first after figures
revealed that passenger journeys in England outside London have declined by 39
percent and by 53 per cent in English cities since 1986. But over the same
period in London, which kept regulation of bus services, passenger journeys
increased by 99 per cent.

Labour’s
policy includes a commitment to low emissions vehicles, Wi-Fi enabled buses,
improved joint and through ticketing schemes, mandatory disability and equality
training, and a commitment to introduce a national strategy for local bus
services, setting out objectives, targets and funding provisions, including
considering concessionary fares for 16-19 year olds.

Jeremy
Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party, said:

“Labour
will create the freedom for councils to run first class bus services which the
public are proud of. The Tory legacy brought rising fares, plummeting passenger
numbers and too many areas where pensioners have a bus pass but no bus.

“Labour
wants to see local communities empowered to determine their own priorities and
reverse the decline in bus services. Labour will extend franchising powers to
all areas that want them and will overturn the ban on new community bus
companies, allowing Local Authorities to replicate the successes of the
country’s best performing operators.

“For
too long the bus industry has put profit before passengers. Labour will change
that.”

Andy
McDonald MP, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, said:

“Buses
are by far the most important mode of public transport, connecting communities,
places of education and businesses like no other.

“In
supporting local economies, combatting climate change, addressing air quality
and tackling social exclusion, the importance of buses cannot be over-stated.
Yet funding for buses across England and Wales has been cut by 33 per cent
since 2010 and thousands of routes have been downgraded or cut altogether,
meaning passengers across the country have to put up with sub-standard
services.

“We
want to see clean, hi-tech fleets of buses running accessible and reliable
services that meet passengers’ needs. For this to happen, we need to give
communities the power to reform bus services to make them work for passengers,
as well as ensuring the funding and strategy is in place to ensure no
communities are left behind.”

Labour’s
policy would:

•                       
Create freedom for local authorities to form their own bus companies by
removing the Government’s ban.

•                       
Extend the powers to re-regulate local bus services to all areas that want them
– not just to combined authorities with an elected mayor.

•                       
Require all new buses to meet the low-emission requirements set out by the
Government-sponsored Office for Low Emission Vehicles.

•                       
Require new vehicles to be equipped with Wi-Fi, and install Wi-Fi on existing
buses.

•                       
Introduce a national strategy for local bus services, setting out objectives,
targets and funding provisions. This would include consideration of a reduced
fare scheme for young people aged 16-19.

•                       
Require all bus drivers and staff at bus terminals to complete approved
disability equality and awareness training, including mental and physical
disabilities, by a specific date.

•                       
Ensure bus services in England make adjustments for any disabled passenger on
the bus including policies for priority wheelchair spaces. 

Labour
leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald are in Tees
Valley today (Friday) promoting Labour’s bus policy.

Nia Griffith MP, Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary,
commenting on reports our Armed Forces are facing a £10bn funding shortfall,
said:

“This is deeply worrying, and the result of years
of mistakes and poor decisions made under the Tories.  

“The severe cuts imposed on the defence budget
since 2010 has led to countless knee-jerk decisions, like scrapping the Nimrod
maritime patrol aircraft, which has left us reliant on allies to track Russian
subs off the UK coast. 

“Last year we saw the Army shrink below 80,000
for the first time, far short of the Government’s manifesto pledge to keep it
above 82,000. 

"Further cuts of £1bn each year, to make up
for this mis-management of the defence budget, will do yet more severe damage
to our Armed Forces. Reports that the Royal Marines could be further cut are
particularly concerning. 

“On the Today programme, the Defence Secretary kept
referring to investment in equipment but he needs to be investing in our forces
personnel to ensure that professional standards remain high, and that they are
trained to be able to operate and maintain new kit. Our Armed Forces are driven
by the hard working men and women who serve and it’s time the Tories recognised
that.  

"It simply isn’t good enough for ministers to
say they can’t verify whether these reports are accurate. They
urgently need to get a grip and explain where they intend these savings to
come from.”

Barbara Keeley
MP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Minister for Social Care, commenting on
the CLG select committee report in to social care, said:

“This report is yet more evidence of government failure on social care.

"With less than 10 per cent of directors of adult social care confident
they will be able to fulfil their statutory duty to provide care this coming
year, it’s clear that the Government simply has not done enough to give social
care the funding it needs.

“The
underfunding of social care is hitting the care work force with nearly half of
all care staff on zero-hours contracts and hundreds of thousands of them
scandalously earning less than the living wage. And as the cuts to budgets
bite, we are seeing the number of people caring for family and friends unpaid
going up faster than population growth. This is bad for the family carers and
can put great strain on families. 

"The
Government should heed the recommendations from the committee and make sure
that their upcoming Green Paper does not rule any future funding options out.
 We need social care to be put on a long term sustainable financial
footing and we need an end to this on-going funding crisis.”

Gordon Marsden
MP, Labour’s Shadow Skills Minister, commenting on a report from a sub-committee of the Education and
Business Select Committee, claiming that the Government’s apprenticeship levy
lacks focus and targets the wrong industries, said:

“Today’s
report confirms what Labour have been saying all along, that while the Government
are obsessing over reaching an arbitrary target for apprenticeship starts, they
are doing nothing to ensure the right outcomes for learners.

"The
fact that the Government’s approach lacks focus and targets the wrong
industries shows that they have failed to develop an industrial strategy worthy
of the name, and can only offer headline chasing gimmicks instead.

"Closing the skills gap and giving young people and older
learners the skills they need should be essential to securing our post-Brexit
future, yet once again this Government have nothing serious to offer
the country.”

Jonathan
Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to the publication of
NHS England’s Next Steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View said: 

“NHS
England’s Five Year Forward View update contains welcome ambitions around
mental health and cancer care that Labour endorses. However reading
between the lines this plan confirms that Theresa May’s Government has broken
its promise by failing to give the NHS the funding it needs. The plan admits
the public are ‘concerned’ for the future of the NHS and that the health
service is under ‘real pressure’ to cope with rising demand within the current
spending envelope.

“Labour has warned repeatedly that the NHS funding squeeze imposed by the
Government is damaging standards of patient care. Now the Forward View confirms
that the main 4 hour A&E target won’t be met for at least the next year.
Waiting lists are growing as a direct result of the financial crisis. The
collapse in standards in the past year has been nothing short of astonishing.

“What’s more the plan confirms more and more rationing of treatments is taking
place across the NHS.

“One
of the biggest problems laid out by the new NHS plan is the massive workforce
challenge for the health service. We welcome NHS England reinforcing Labour’s
calls for the Government to guarantee the status of European health staff as
soon as possible. Sadly Jeremy Hunt has no plan whatsoever to help the NHS
through the challenge of Brexit and is being enormously complacent about the
impact for the NHS. The Government need to be much clearer about how they will
guarantee there are enough staff in place in the health service to keep
patients safe for the years to come.”