Labour: The Government promised 4,000 new green buses 16 months ago – but not a single one has made it to the road

Ministers promised 16 months ago they would deliver 4,000 new zero emission buses – yet not a single one has made it onto the road.

And since its initial pledge in February 2020, the Government has quietly downgraded its ambitions on greener transport.

Funding commitments made so far will cover just 500 new vehicles, despite the rest of England lagging far behind London on the roll out of electric buses.

Ahead of a visit to GoAhead’s green bus depot in Waterloo, Kerry McCarthy, Labour's Shadow Minister for Green Transport, said:

“This is just the latest in a long line of examples of the Government talking a good game, yet failing to deliver.

“The GoAhead hub for green buses is an example of the efficient and clean transport infrastructure we need to see across the country, and another transport success story under a Labour Mayor.

“Labour is delivering cleaner, cheaper and better transport networks up and down the country, but the Government is still failing millions of passengers nationally. While we’re still waiting for the promised 4,000 zero emission buses, cuts to bus services and rising ticket costs will push more people into using more polluting forms of transport."

Ends

Notes to Editors

1. Back in February 2020 the Government announced they would build 4,000 zero emission buses.

1. Then on the 15 March 2021 the Government announced funding to pay for 800 buses

“The £120 million mentioned in the bus strategy will go towards the first 800 of those buses.”

Grant Shapps, Hansard, 15 March 2021, https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-03-15/debates/23CE4D18-4636-40CD-B20F-56BE8F8E14EC/NationalBusStrategyEngland

1. Then just two weeks later they downgraded it to just 500.

“The funding (£120m) will deliver up to 500 zero emission buses, supporting the Government’s wider commitment to introduce 4,000 zero emission buses.”

1. However not a single bus has been built.

1. Clearly progress is urgently needed as, while London had reached 44% of buses being fully electric or hybrid models in 2019/2020, buses in the rest of England were still 95% diesel.

Rachel Maclean, TheyWorkForYou, 18^th December 2020, https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2020-12-15.130102.h&s=electric+vehicles#g130102.r0

1. A Labour Government would:

• Create freedom for local authorities to form their own bus companies by removing the Government’s ban.
• Extend the powers to re-regulate local bus services to all areas that want them – not just to combined authorities with an elected mayor.
• Require all new buses to meet the low-emission requirements set out by the Government-sponsored Office for Low Emission Vehicles.

1. Over the last 11 years the Tories have presided over a broken bus market. Bus fares have already risen by 70 per cent.

2010 to 2020’s figures are taken from DfT, costs, fares and revenue bus statistics, Table BUS0405, 17 June 2020, https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/bus04-costs-fares-and-revenue

2021’s figure is 2020 figure x 1.217%

1. Using the ONS’ ‘basket of goods’ you can draw out the individual items to show their inflation rises over time.

By using the RPI measure of inflation bus and coach fares are up 21.7%. That’s the highest yearly increase since the figures began in 1988.

1. Rising fares come at time of ever-worsening service. Over the first eight years of the last decade, there are figures, 3,347 bus services have been reduced or withdrawn according to the Campaign for Better Transport. This means the average is 418 in a year have been cut. At the current rate, by the end of the next Parliament the Tory Government will have overseen a reduction of more than 5,850 bus routes.

Campaign for better transport, Buses in Crisis, p7, 2018, https://bettertransport.org.uk/sites/default/files/research-files/Buses-in-Crisis-2018_0.pdf

1. Higher fares and cuts to bus routes have seen a decline in the number passengers using local bus services in England outside of London. There has been a reduction of 15 per cent since 2010 and at the current rate, that figure could reach 20 per cent by 2024.

DfT, local bus passenger journeys, bus statistics, Tables BUS0103, 28 October 2020, https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/bus01-local-bus-passenger-journeys

1. Higher fares and cuts to bus routes have seen a particular reduction in the number of elderly and disabled passengers using local bus services in England outside of London. There has been a reduction of 17 per cent since 2010 and at the current rate that figure could reach 26 per cent by 2024.

DfT, costs, fares and revenue bus statistics, Tables BUS0105, 17 June 2020, https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/bus01-local-bus-passenger-journeys