WECA Mayor criticises local council for blocking bus franchising plans

The West of England metro mayor has blamed South Gloucestershire Council as the main obstacle blocking bus franchising. Dan Norris said a lack of tax-raising powers meant he didn’t have the money to bring buses back under public control in the wider Bristol region.

All the nine other combined authorities in England have powers to raise their own income through charging a precept on council tax bills. The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) is the odd one out without these powers, and mostly relies on receiving government funding with strict rules.

Mr Norris is facing growing pressure to formally explore how bus franchising could work in the region. Franchising would see the West of England have far more control over the region’s bus networks and timetables, and is being explored in other parts of the country.

But the main obstacle, according to the metro mayor, is a lack of precepting powers. He claimed he can’t bring in those powers without the agreement of South Gloucestershire Council, during a West of England Combined Authority scrutiny meeting on Monday, March 13.

However, the council’s leader said South Gloucestershire “would be supportive of bus franchising being properly investigated”, and accused the mayor of “indulging in politicking” in passing the blame.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Norris said: “Unless we get precepting sorted, then there won’t be any franchising. And at the moment, South Gloucestershire Council doesn’t want franchising and they don’t want precepting. Given I’ve got a voting system which requires unanimous voting, that’s quite an obstacle.

“I’m going to be looking at how it rolls out in Greater Manchester later this year. I know people are very impatient when it comes to franchising — the Bristol Post has launched a campaign and I receive all sorts of letters about it. But what I don’t have compared to other combined authorities that are committed to it, is I don’t have the money they have.”

Responding to the mayor’s claims, South Gloucestershire Council chiefs say they would support an investigation into bus franchising. But they raised concerns about potential precepting powers and burdening further taxes onto residents who are already struggling with the cost of living.

The response from South Gloucestershire Council

Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Toby Savage, leader of South Gloucestershire Council, said: “It’s disappointing that the West of England mayor is indulging again in the same politicking that WECA’s auditors have raised serious concerns about.

“The WECA mayor has not wanted to facilitate a regional discussion about bus franchising. Were he to do so — and contrary to what has been stated — South Gloucestershire Council would be supportive of bus franchising being properly investigated, so we can understand how best to resolve the challenges facing our bus network.

“With the WECA mayor’s recent track record of skewed spending priorities — such as paying £8 million for lavish new offices while bus services are cut — we are yet to be convinced that a strong case has been made for the WECA mayor to acquire new tax-raising powers in the midst of a cost of living crisis. When it comes to the best use of public money, the WECA mayor needs to learn to master walking, before seeking to run.”

Bus franchising is picking up momentum elsewhere in England. The model has been in place in London for decades, where private operators bid for contracts from Transport for London, and will shortly be launched in Greater Manchester later this year. All other Labour-run combined authorities have committed to formally explore franchising too.

Another key difference between the West of England and other areas like Greater Manchester is a lack of a tram system, which brings in a huge amount of revenue and helps pay for bringing buses under public control. The Bristol region almost got a tram network about two decades ago, until plans were scuppered by a row about where the northern terminus should be built.

Mr Norris added: “I certainly don’t have what Greater Manchester has, which is a very popular tram system. I wish I did. Perhaps if discussions in Bristol and South Gloucestershire had been fruitful — when I was in the Labour government we offered £1 billion for a tram system — we would have a functioning and profitable tram system, which would be very helpful in terms of going down the franchising route.

“Franchising is under constant review. Of course there’s not a formal process yet. We have to deal with many more challenging things at the moment. And the real answer, much more than franchising, is state ownership. But I don’t know when state ownership will come as it’ll have to be paid for.

“Franchising is fraught with all sorts of difficulties. The commercial operators love franchising. Do you know why they love it? There’s no risk for them, they don’t risk losing money. They just say we’ll provide these services for this amount.”

But campaigners were not convinced by the metro mayor’s arguments. According to Matthew Topham, from the Reclaim Our Buses campaign, carrying out a formal assessment into bus franchising might only cost about £2.5 million — and in the long term franchising could actually save the combined authority money, as has happened in Jersey.

Mr Topham said: “This answer shows once again that the mayor doesn’t understand his largest devolved power. He can’t claim to know whether precepting would be needed until a statutory investigation has been carried out, as only once that process is underway can he gain the operator data needed to estimate the costs.

“What’s more, not all franchising schemes require the local authorities to take on revenue risk — the issue he seems to be concerned about. Indeed, the Cambridgeshire Mayoral Authority expressed a preference for leaving operators with revenue risk.

“Even then, taking buses into public control is often a net benefit to councils, with Jersey reducing the public subsidy needed to support the bus network by £800,000 a year through its scheme. The mayor’s answer seems to be another attempt to deflect the issue — it won’t work.”

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