Labour’s planned bus reforms are ‘financially illiterate’ and could push up taxes, Tories claim

Labour’s plans to overhaul the bus network were branded ‘financially illiterate’ yesterday as the Tories warned they would force councils to raise taxes or risk going broke.

Louise Haigh, Labour’s transport spokesman, unveiled the party’s plans to effectively nationalize many services across the country during a visit to the West Midlands.

Ms Haigh was accompanied by Labor deputy leader Angela Rayner during the trip to Perry Barr bus depot in Birmingham.

Labor claims its plan will not require additional central government money, although it relies on funding from councils and mayors.

Passenger groups welcomed the proposals but warned that any plan would almost certainly require extra Whitehall funding. However, Labor failed to say where this money will come from.

Mrs Rayner visited the bus depot as Louise Haigh, Labour’s transport spokesperson, revealed the party’s plans to effectively nationalize services across the country

Transport Minister Mark Harper criticized Labour’s plan, slamming it as unfunded

The Conservatives said it meant moving loss-making bus services onto the balance sheets of already struggling local councils, without giving them any extra money to do so.

Transport Minister Mark Harper said: “It’s clear for all to see – taxes have to rise to pay for Labour’s obsession with nationalisation, which takes us back to square one.”

Like their unfunded £28 billion a year decarbonisation pledge, they have no plan to pay for their transport pledges – making councils pay for loss-making bus services but with no money to back them.

‘Without a plan to pay for their promises, that means one thing: Taxes will go up on hard-working people.’

In contrast, he said, the Tory government has scrapped the northern section of HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester to save £36 billion by pumping some of the money into the bus network.

A government source added: ‘Labour’s plan is a recipe for disaster, with council tax rises and council bankruptcies across the country.’

A similar model adopted last month by the Labor mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, came with estimated transition costs of more than £100m.

A meeting of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority heard that the estimated costs would require a one-off transitional investment of £15.1m spread over four years, as well as an £85.5m investment in depots.

The Tories warn that if this was replicated across the country, it could collectively cost councils billions.

Under Ms Haigh’s plans, the party would pass a Better Buses Act to remove legal barriers to other local authorities taking over privately run routes, giving them powers like Ms Brabin’s.

Ms Haigh claimed her plan would create and save up to 1,300 bus routes and allow 250 million more passenger journeys a year.

“For far too long, people across the country have been denied a say in their bus service,” she said.

The legislation will only apply to England because bus services are devolved affairs in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

In Manchester, it took six years to bring bus services back under public control. But Labor claims it will reduce this to as little as two.