Ministers must come clean on bus funding

The Labour Party has urged the government to ‘come clean’ on bus funding as operators prepare to slash services.

The industry and local authorities have warned that almost one in three services are at risk, with the Treasury refusing to confirm if it will continue grant funding to support operators whose bus revenues have yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels.

Without extra support or an extension, the financial lifeline will otherwise expire on 5 April, meaning many operators, who normally must give six weeks’ notice to close a route, will decide this week which services remain viable.

In a letter to the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary said that Louise Haigh said routes could be axed just as passenger numbers begin to recover, ‘locking in declining services for years to come’.

She said Shapps should ‘come clean on wider long-term funding cuts’ for the Bus Back Better strategy announced last year by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which included £3 billion to transform buses. The improvement fund has been reduced to just over £1.2 billion, with the government counting emergency support grants to the industry as part of the total figure.