Devolution was one of the most important achievements of the last Labour government, but we left unfinished business that we should commit to completing. While Scotland, Wales and London now set their own transport investment priorities, the rest of England has been left behind. As a result, councils waste scarce resources bidding for funding, while local rail services and funding for buses are micromanaged from the Department of Transport.

The Tories have started to talk the talk on devolution, but struggle to let go. Cutting the separate transport funds to which councils bid from 26 to four was right, but ministers have given into temptation and created new pots all over again. Creating a devolved Single Local Growth Fund from 2015 is a start, albeit a belated one, but will consist of just over £1bn compared to the £12bn spent through the Highways Agency, Network Rail and HS2 Ltd each year. Ministers have wrongly abandoned their plan to allocate this supposedly devolved investment using a fair funding formula, again reverting to ministers signing off individual schemes. And it is a huge mistake that bids are to come from Local Enterprise Partnerships rather than elected and accountable local authorities.

In sharp contrast to this failure, Hilary Benn has proposed what he has called a new ‘English Deal’ which would see real devolution of funding and decision-making to councils and partnerships between them. To make this a reality we must always be asking what the lowest level at which decisions could be taken is, whether on infrastructure, planning, housing, skills or transport. We should also use devolution as an effective way of ensuring that we get better value for the money we are spending. For example, passing down money from Whitehall as single pots where possible so decisions are taken locally and money is not wasted in bidding to lots of separate funds controlled by ministers.

An ‘English Deal on Transport’ should mean the rest of the country having the ability to deliver integrated local transport, with smart multi-modal, multi-operator ticketing, as already exists in London. To achieve this, Labour would give local authorities and partnerships between them new powers over local bus and rail services.

It is not acceptable that local authorities outside London have no ability to set bus fares, plan a proper network or introduce the daily, weekly and monthly caps on fares that come from an ‘Oyster’-style system. Local politicians tell me that they could get better value for the very large sums of taxpayers’ money that go into supporting bus services if they could move to the tendered model that exists in London. I have therefore proposed a package of reforms to achieve this, including a major simplification of the process by which a transport authority can reverse bus deregulation in their local area; a new power for the secretary of state to designate Bus Deregulation Exemption Zones; and the devolution to local authorities of the remaining bus funding still paid out nationally, giving them greater clout when negotiating with bus companies.

To enable genuine local transport integration, we must also devolve responsibility for regional and local rail services. All the evidence suggests that the ability to specify services and manage contracts locally leads to improvements for passengers, with a renewed focus on investment such as new rolling stock and station improvements. Most importantly, it enables single ticketing systems across rail and bus services regardless of mode or operator. A future Labour government should therefore begin this process by devolving the Northern, Transpennine and West Midlands rail services to partnerships made up of local authorities. Transport for London should also be able to take over more of the local commuter services into London, across the old Network South East area, provided they create an accountable structure of governance involving local councils.

I am determined that the next Labour government will ensure that every decision over transport is taken at the lowest possible level, with funding and power devolved as part of a new English Deal for Transport.

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Maria Eagle MP is shadow secretary of state for transport. Follow her and the Labour transport team on Twitter @MEagleMP @LabourTransport

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Photo: Ian Britton