Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the Government has plans to increase funding for rural bus routes.

Where there is not enough demand for a bus route to be commercially viable, all local authorities have powers to subsidise bus services. The Department provides £43 million per year to local authorities to support this. As part of the 2018-19 local government finance settlement, the Government responded to a number of councils’ concerns over rural services funding by increasing the Rural Services Delivery Grant to £81 million. The 2019-20 settlement increased the Grant to the same level. This recognises the extra costs of providing services in rural communities.