Member

Lords amendment 2 requires the Secretary of State to rank franchise agreements by performance, and to nationalise franchises in that order, starting with the worst, but in each case only if the Secretary of State is satisfied that it will result in performance being improved. There is some logic to that approach; if we went simply by when franchises were due to end, some of the best-performing franchises would be nationalised first and some of the worst last, which is why we originally proposed this amendment. That same amendment, in its entirety, has now been put forward by the Conservatives. Imitation is of course the sincerest form of flattery, and I am duly touched by their actions. I only wish that they had taken the same approach to Brexit. However, following discussions with and reassurances from the Minister in the other place, we now believe that the wording is too inflexible, and that the costs of implementing the amendment are too high, so we are unable to support it. We do, however, share some of our Conservative colleagues’ concerns, and we ask the Secretary of State to consider using the powers in the Bill to extend franchises that are performing well, where appropriate, as was mentioned by the hon. Member for Fylde (Mr Snowden). If a franchise is doing well, the Government should not rush to fix something that is not broken; they should prioritise nationalising franchises that are performing poorly.