‘Non-essential services’ limit case for wider coach funding, says Baroness Vere
Some services that the coach industry provides are essential, and some others are “non-essential.” That has greatly influenced the government’s reasoning behind the coach sector’s failure to qualify for iundustry-specific support, according to Transport Minister Baroness Vere.
The controversial statement came during a keynote address to the coach and bus industry as part of the Confederation of Passenger Transport UK Bus and Coach Conference discussion on the future of the industry after the pandemic.
According to the minister, essential services include home-to-school transport and rail replacement work, which the UK “cannot as a country function without.”
But it is also the case that the coach industry runs services that are “non-essential,” according to the minister, which complicates the case for a funding deal. “We cannot protect every single job and business indefinitely,” she explains. “This is taxpayers’ money, and you have to ask what is so essential that the government must step in to support it because it will not return when demand returns. There are sectors all over the economy that have not had a sector-specific deal.”
While the announcement harms hopes of a wide-scale support package further, Ms Vere did however stress that helping coaches get through the pandemic is “top of the government’s mind”, which is why it has sought support for home-to-school work and scheduled coach services.
Drawing attention to the campaigns currently raising awareness of the coach sector’s plight, Ms Vere says she understands what the coach industry is going through and will continue to find ways of accessing funding. “Back Britain’s Coaches, Wish you could Hear, and Honk for Hope have lifted the coach industry’s profile and I recognise its frustration that it hasn’t received specific sector-wide support,” she says. “The Department for Transport and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is seeking further clarity on the £500m of additional restriction spending announced by the Chancellor and which will be distributed by local authorities.
“We are going to try and see if we can improve the chances of coach operators to access that funding, so I would encourage all coach operators to make the local authority your best friend for many reasons, but certainly to understand whether it can support you with this financing that is coming from central government.”
Meanwhile, work is ongoing on the National Bus Strategy, which will focus on passenger recovery, restoring lost services and road space reallocation.
