'No community should be cut off' - charity calls for a Bus Service Guarantee alongside latest funding boost

As part of its promised 'bus revolution', Campaign for Better Transport is calling on the Government to introduce a Bus Service Guarantee to ensure all communities have at least a minimum, reasonable level of bus service.

Silviya Barrett from Campaign for Better Transport said: “No community should face being completely cut off from public transport. Buses are a lifeline, making bus provision a social justice issue. A Bus Service Guarantee would ensure public transport gets treated and funded as the essential public service that it is. If the Government really wants to bring about ‘London-style' services across the country, it should define the levels of services everyone should be able to expect and ensure local authorities have the funding to deliver them."

The Government has just announced reforms to the way local bus funding is allocated in order to end the previous ‘postcode lottery' which resulted in vast disparities of central government funding per head of population between local authorities. Whist the latest round of Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding announced today (18 November) goes some way to plugging the gaps for authorities at the bottom of the pile, Campaign for Better Transport argues that greater transparency is still needed on the factors used in the formula for allocations.

To truly end the ‘postcode lottery' and deliver it's ‘bus revolution', Campaign for Better Transport is calling on the Government to include a Bus Service Guarantee in the forthcoming Better Buses Bill and move to longer-term funding settlements. Guidance for appropriate minimum levels of services depending on location/population etc. would be issued by the Department for Transport, along with targeted funding to help places that fall below the agreed minimum level to meet the Guarantee.

As well as being much needed, a Bus Service Guarantee would be also a popular with the public with 87 per cent of people surveyed for Campaign for Better Transport's report Better buses: reforming bus funding agreeing that every community should be guaranteed at least a minimum level of bus services.

Read: Better buses: reforming bus funding.

ENDS

View a full list of English local authorities ranked by how much central government bus funding each has received (including the latest BSIP allocations announced today) since 2022.