Bus Services: Finance

(asked on 26th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing financial support for bus services directly to local transport authorities rather than bus operators.


Answered by
Rachel Maclean Portrait
Rachel Maclean
This question was answered on 1st February 2021

Local transport authorities do receive some Covid-19 Bus Services Support Grant (CBSSG) funding for tendered services. However, to ensure consistency with Bus Services Operators Grant (BSOG), the majority of CBSSG funding is paid directly to operators. The Government needs to be confident that the public transport system can restart swiftly as required. We do not believe that now is the right time to change our funding models.

We are also keen to avoid a situation where different funding models are operating in different parts of the country, which would cause additional challenges for cross-border services or operators whose businesses span multiple urban areas.

The allocation of CBSSG funding reflects the structure of the bus market and ensures that both Local Transport Authorities and operators have the funding they need to support up to 100% of pre-pandemic service levels, where it is safe and appropriate to do so.

Local transport funding decisions are devolved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

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