Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is taking steps to help support local authorities to (a) maintain and (b) extend bus routes.

The Government has provided over £2 billion in emergency and recovery funding for bus services in England outside London since March 2020. On 17 May, the Government announced a long-term approach to support and improve bus services with an additional £300 million from July 2023 until April 2025. £160 million of this funding will be provided to Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) through a “Bus Service Improvement Plan plus” (BSIP+) mechanism focused on improving bus services in local areas, whilst allowing local authorities to make local decisions on protecting services. The remaining £140 million will be provided to bus operators via a “Bus Service Operators Grant plus” (BSOG+) mechanism to help protect vital services.

The Government is also providing over £1 billion to 34 local LTAs to support the delivery of their Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs), including to maintain and extend bus routes. Following the announcement of 17 May, the Department has changed the rules to allow LTAs who were allocated BSIP funding to use up to 10% of this funding to support existing services where necessary. A switch of over 10% of this allocation will require approval from the Department for Transport.