Concessionary Bus Travel Bill [Lords]

The right hon. Gentleman makes a good point, which was explored in Committee. Indeed, that consequence was presented forcefully and we wait to hear whether the Government have changed their position on the matter. The Journal in Newcastle also reported:"““The extra burden on council finance looks set to cause a repeat of last year’s transport crisis which saw a £7.3 million budget black hole emerge as authorities struggled to find funding for concessionary bus travel.””" Shirley Atkinson, director of finance at Nexus, said:"““Traditional funding does not match where the travel will fall. Some authorities may think they will get more money than they do now, but undoubtedly there will be some who will lose out. It ""can be quite a scary position to be in. We face having an uncontrollable financial risk for the first couple of years up until we know what this policy will look like in practice.””"