Concessionary Bus Travel Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, and the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, for contributing to the debate. I must roundly disabuse the noble Baroness of the notion that I cowered at the idea of Blackpool as a honeypot. This busy bee has been there quite often, so I would not dream of suggesting that Blackpool did not have singular and attractive features. I would not be rash enough to engage in a great deal of detail—or principle, for that matter—with the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, or the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, about local government finance, as I am all too aware that they know a great deal more about the difficulties in that area than I do. I reassure them both that the Government heartily subscribe to their sentiment that local authorities should be adequately funded by central Government for the costs of administering this mandatory concession. We intend to fund fully the new statutory burden. That is why the money was quoted in the Budget Statement and why we have clear figures for each of the next three years for how much it will cost and how much will need to go to local authorities. The reason why we are not including money in the Bill is that we recognise that circumstances change. Flexibility needs to be built into legislation, otherwise we would never be able to effect improvements except through continual changes to primary legislation. The nature of concessionary travel is that there will be improvements as time goes on, when resources allow. The noble Lord, Lord Low, was fertile this afternoon with areas in which he thought that for what he regarded as quite marginal costs, improvements can be effected. It would not help at all if we had a rigid framework of resources in the Bill. I hesitate to ask the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, this question—he may well answer me and take me down paths that I shall not follow very far—but is he actually saying that the solution to this is a hypothecated grant or a specific grant? I have the greatest sympathy with him; I am all too well aware of the difficulties that local authorities face—and I am delighted to give way to him.