{"id":14969,"date":"2018-04-13T10:53:51","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T09:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14969"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:59:03","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:59:03","slug":"labour-bus-travel-under-25s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14969","title":{"rendered":"‘Young people deserve a break’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Young people will have one more burden lifted from them under a future Labour government, after the party yesterday (April 12) announced a new policy granting free bus travel to under 25s.<\/p>\n

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The plan will benefit young people who are among the hardest hit by austerity and tend to be in lower-paid jobs. Labour estimates that it will save 13m people about \u00c2\u01411,000 each year.<\/p>\n

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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn launched the policy yesterday (April 12) at a sixth-form in Derby, where he told dozens of young people that they \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdeserve a break\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNearly eight years of Tory austerity have hit their incomes, their chance to buy a house and their career opportunities,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bLabour wants to help young people make the most out of life by investing in them, which is why today we are pledging the next Labour government will provide the funds to cover free bus travel for under 25s, to support them to travel to work, to study and to visit friends.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur policy provides help where it is most needed,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Corbyn added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOn average, children, young people and households with children each have less disposable income than working age households without children. Young people also tend to be in lower paid, more insecure work, and they spend a higher proportion of their income on travel. Giving them free bus travel will make a huge difference to their lives.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Municipal bus services<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Labour party has said the policy would be funded by money ring-fenced from Vehicle Excise Duty. A future Labour government would provide this funding to local authorities to cover free bus travel for under 25s if local authorities take back their bus services under municipal control.<\/p>\n

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Unite national officer for passenger transport Bobby Morton welcomed the new Labour policy, which he said could provide the right incentive for local authorities to return to running municipal bus services \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which benefit all passengers as well as staff alike.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is no coincidence that the best-rated bus companies are all municipally run,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Morton said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey also end up saving money \u00e2\u20ac\u201c research from Transport for Quality of Life has shown that bringing buses back into public ownership could save a quarter of a billion pounds a year.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Morton explained that because private companies run their services solely to maximise profit, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwhen they can cut corners they will, which leads to a reduced or poorer quality service.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOn the other hand, municipal companies make their decisions on behalf of the passengers they serve,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe council-run bus companies are actually quite profitable and are able to reinvest those profits into making the service better, instead of being beholden to shareholders.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more, Morton noted, bus workers employed by municipal bus companies are all directly employed and \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhandsomely rewarded\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMunicipal bus workers enjoy the best pay, terms and conditions in the entire industry.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hope for young people<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Unite national officer with responsibility for young members Rhys McCarthy said Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s latest policy would be a much-needed boost for young people who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve suffered under Tory governments.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bYoung people have been sacrificed at the altar of the wealthy by this and the previous Tory-led governments \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve inherited a world in which owning a home, having a secure job with a decent pension, or finishing university without massive debt have all become virtually unattainable pipe dreams.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOnly the Labour party understands how hard young people have been hit by both austerity and a global financial crisis that blighted their future prospects from the outset. This latest policy on bus travel — coupled with other policies such as scrapping tuition fees, restoring maintenance grants and granting the vote to 16s and 17s \u00e2\u20ac\u201c will go a long way towards giving young people the hope they now so desperately need.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey likewise praised Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new policy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGreat move by Labour,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bYoung people deserve a break after years of Tory austerity. Another excellent reason to vote Labour in May.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forget to register to vote<\/a> for the upcoming local elections on May 3 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the deadline to sign up is April 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Young people will have one more burden lifted from them under a future Labour government, after the party yesterday (April 12) announced a new policy granting free bus travel to under 25s.   The plan will benefit young people who are among the hardest hit by austerity and tend to be in lower-paid jobs. Labour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[193,872,523,71],"wps_subtitle":"Labour to grant free bus travel for austerity-hit under 25s","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14969"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14969"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26276,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14969\/revisions\/26276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}