VILLIERS ATTACKS LABOUR FIASCO ON CONCESSIONARY FARES

Following Labour's announcement yesterday that £30m has been suddenly withdrawn from transport funding received by the London boroughs for the national concessionary bus fares scheme, MP for Chipping Barnet, Theresa Villiers, said:

“Council taxpayers in my constituency in Chipping Barnet and across the rest of the capital are being left to pick up the tab for Labour incompetence in relation to the national concessionary fares scheme.”

“Labour’s announcement yesterday was an admission of failure from a Government that has wholly mismanaged the funding system for concessionary fares.”

“It is clear that Gordon Brown has broken his promise to fully fund concessionary fares across the country and left many local authorities with a major funding shortfall. This has inevitably led to pressure for council tax increases or service cuts. Labour’s approach to allocating funding for concessionary fares has dismally failed to get the balance right between different areas and has operated in an unfair way.”

“As a result, London local authorities are now left with a sudden unexpected hole in their finances, to add to all the other pressures on them created by the Government’s irresponsible approach to the public finances and the impact of a recession for which Gordon Brown’s mismanagement of the economy left this country ill-prepared.”