Meeting of the Parliament 05 February 2020
That question leads me nicely on to an intervention that we have proposed, which is for free bus travel for the under-25s. That not only would increase the use of public transport, which would mean that more buses would be available to benefit us all, but would form patterns of behaviour that young people would carry into adulthood, reducing the number of polluting car journeys that are made.
Free bus travel would, of course, benefit young people by opening up new opportunities, enabling them to attend work and after-school activities. It is a classic invest-to-save policy: we would get young people on to buses and protect our planet, and we would allow them to become more economically active, boosting our economy and our coffers.
Scottish Labour delivered free bus travel for older people, which has been a huge success, keeping people active as they get older, moving people out of their cars and on to buses while they are able to make the change and meaning that they do not become isolated when they are no longer able to drive.
The SNP Government has turbo-charged Tory austerity for councils. Since 2013, local government has faced the brunt of cuts, with its total revenue funding decreasing by 7 per cent while the Scottish Government has shouldered a 2 per cent cut to its revenue budget. When the “Local Government Benchmarking Framework: National Benchmarking Overview Report” for 2018-19 was published, it was stated:
“Scottish local government is now operating in a more challenging setting with greater demand for services against a tightening budget, with improvements achieved in previous years starting to stall ... the data does highlight that with the status quo there is a ... risk to the future delivery of key services. Councils are delving into their reserves raising questions as to how they will cope delivering services and maintain the momentum they have gained without a change in funding.”