7. What plans does the Welsh Government have to improve bus services in the south Wales valleys? OAQ55092

I thank Huw Irranca-Davies for that. The bus Bill, to be introduced by the Welsh Government later in this term will allow local authorities to plan services in the public interest and to stimulate demand for bus services in the south Wales Valleys and elsewhere in Wales. 

The First Minister will know that for me, and many of my south Wales Valleys representatives here—we don't have the options for trains in many of these valleys; it is the bus that is the critical one if we want to encourage people to make that modal shift across onto public transport, with the climate change gains, but also a different way of travelling as well. But the reality is, I think, that unless we actually reverse the absolute disastrous deregulation of buses that happened decades ago, and we can put in place, alongside the south Wales metro, the type of planned, both strategic and local, network of buses that will get people to work on time, to their hospital appointment, and this surgery, and to socialise, and deal with isolation as well, then we cannot do it.

So, I would like to ask him what his thoughts are on that emerging scenario around a more planned regime, a reversal of the deregulation that we saw. And can I also ask him whether, now that we've had the announcement from the Prime Minister on the multi, hundreds of billions of pounds potentially here for the HS2, and what I understand may be additional money for buses in England, it has been communicated to Welsh Government that we have a Barnettised consequential that can be passed into public transport in Wales?

I thank the Member for that. I entirely agree with him—there has been a 30-year failed experiment in deregulation of bus services. We will introduce a Bill on the floor of this Assembly that will put the public interest back at the heart of the way in which public investment in bus services is carried out in Wales, allowing them—the local authorities, that is—to be able to control licences issued, to have more democratic input and control over strategic and local routes. The Bill that my colleague Julie James will be taking through the Assembly on local government will provide local authorities with new abilities to come together to plan transport for their area. And, of course, far more people use the bus in Wales than use the train, and that's why we will have legislation on the floor of this Assembly to put bus services back where they belong—under the control of public authorities, run in the interests of people and not of profit.

As far as the announcement today is concerned, we have no certainty at all from the UK Government as to whether any funding will flow to Wales, both in relation to the announcement made on buses, or in relation to the HS2 announcement. Of course money must come to Wales. Members here will be very familiar with the figures: we have 11 per cent of the track, 20 per cent of level crossings—as Members were discussing here last week—and we've had 2 per cent of the funding, over the last 10 years. The Tories' great train robbery of Wales needs to come to an end, Llywydd, and we look forward to hearing after today that that great train robbery is coming to an end.