£400 million cut from buses - but change is coming

Hello

Our new report shows that once again funding for buses has decreased, with 243 services around the country having been lost or reduced in the past year. But next year could be different: with the Government promising a National Bus Strategy and new multi-year funding settlement, there’s a chance to set buses on the road to a brighter future.

Our report, Future of the bus: future funding arrangements, shows that:

• Funding for buses in England is almost £400 million a year lower than it was ten years ago
• Well over 3,000 local authority supported bus services have been lost or reduced in a decade; 243 in the past year

We've seen a similar picture of declining funding, service cuts and rising fares for several years now, which is why we've led calls for a National Bus Strategy to focus attention on our most-used form of public transport. Now the Government has listened: it has promised a National Bus Strategy to be published in the spring.

Our report shows how the Strategy should change the way buses are funded. We want to see:

• A single, ring-fenced, long-term fund aimed at rejuvenating England's bus networks and supporting concessionary fares
• Support to transform the UK’s bus fleet to run on electricity and hydrogen, cleaning up our polluted air
• New funding sources to improve buses, like Workplace Parking Levies and a pay-as-you-drive road user charge (to replace VED and fuel duty)

These are just a few of the recommendations outlined in our report, which also contains details of how much each English local authority spends on buses - so you can see how your area measures up. The cuts are deeply concerning, but with the right interventions at this crucial time they need not continue: instead bus networks can grow and improve, reconnect communities and clean up our polluted air.

Best wishes

Darren