Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to prioritise funding bids that propose to purchase buses from UK-based manufacturers under the Zero Emission Buses Regional Areas scheme.
As set out in the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 £355 million of new funding has been made available for zero emission buses. £150 million of this funding has been made available for 2021-22. The Department intends to allocate this funding to support to the Zero Emission Bus Region Areas (ZEBRA) scheme, taking the total funding available for the scheme to up to £270 million in the financial year 2021 to 2022. UK bus manufacturers are well placed to benefit from funding from the ZEBRA scheme.