Clause 11 - Financial assistance: air transport services
Transport (Wales) Bill
4:30 pm
Bill Wiggin ((Also Shadow Secretary of State for Wales), Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Leominster, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 13, in page 7, line 7, leave out subsection (2).
Through the amendment we once again query why the Assembly should be able to provide financial assistance only to services or facilities that would not exist without help. This is similar to our debate this morning. Especially in the case of air services, it would be more productive to subsidise commercially viable enterprises than to give financial assistance to schemes that will have to be run at a loss. There are clearly huge financial implications: granting the Assembly power of financial assistance for air transport with no transferral of funds means that support will have to be found within the Assembly budget. It looks as though significant amounts of Welsh taxpayers’ money, which might be better spent elsewhere, will be spent on the additional costs arising from the provisions of the Bill. Of course, the development of Wales’ transport and economy is of the utmost importance.
It is also important to remember that the commercial viability of flights within Wales is questionable. As Bus Users UK has stated:
“required financial support is likely to be vastly out of proportion to the benefits that may accrue.”
The need for subsidies to start air transport services in the first place—pump-priming—raised the issue of whether services would be workable in the long term. Although there is no definite evidence that proves an unmet demand for flights within Wales, there is a strong argument that must be considered that air transport should be developed on a commercial basis only, and should not involve public funds. We must also consider any effect on rail services if passengers were to move from rail to air transport. We would see weakened economic viability and threats to the economic growth of Welsh rail companies.