The Government’s National Bus Strategy is ‘failing’ as a quarter of bus services are cut since its launch, says Campaign for Better Transport

Two years to the day (15 March) since its publication, the Government’s national strategy for buses, Bus Back Better, is failing as figures reveal 23 per cent of bus services in England - 2,800 services - have been cut since its launch in March 2021.

Campaign for Better Transport, which has released the figures, is calling on the Government to urgently address the decline and make good on its promise to passengers and improve bus services across the country.

Silviya Barrett, from Campaign for Better Transport, said:

“Two years ago, we welcomed the publication of an ambitious national bus strategy and the better bus services it promised. But two years down the road and very little has changed, if anything things have got worse, with even more cuts and lost services. The promised transformational funding was very limited, and whilst the £2 bus fare cap and recovery funding, now extended until the Summer, are very welcome and have undoubtedly helped save some routes, they are no substitute for long-term funding.

“The Government must now make good on its promises and ensure that the rest of the £3 billion pledged to deliver the national bus strategy is made available so that buses can realise their economic, social and environmental potential.”

Local bus services have been in decline for a number of years, but Campaign for Better Transport research has revealed that between March 2021, when Bus Back Better was launched, and March 2023, 23 per cent of bus services in England have been cut, resulting in 2,800 fewer services.

A series of emergency stop gap funding pots from central Government helped to prevent even more cuts to services, but whilst this support was much needed and welcomed by passengers and the bus industry alike, Campaign for Better Transport argues that it has created a cycle of short-term funding, resulting in a moving cliff-edge of funding cuts.

More than a year after Bus Back Better was published, the Government invited local authorities to bid for a share of £1.1 billion in Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding to help improve bus services in their areas. 31 local authorities were initially successful but were awarded less than they had applied for. Almost two thirds received nothing. To help those authorities which received no funding, the Government pledged to set up a Bus Centre of Excellence, but the centre has yet to be established.

To help realise the ambitions of Bus Back Better, Campaign for Better Transport is calling for:  

• All bus funding to be transferred to the Department for Transport and local authority bus funding ringfenced to ensure that funding is not spent on other public services
• The current competitive system of bus funding replaced with a single, long-term funding pot for all

• The £2 bus fare cap to be better marketed to attract new passengers.

Ms Barrett added: “It’s extremely disappointing after the launch of the strategy two years ago that we are still seeing cuts to services on this scale. Local authorities have been badly let down when it comes to funding to improve bus services: despite being given the powers to run better bus services, they still don’t have the funding or the capacity to make this a reality. The Government must do more to support local authorities so they can work with bus operators and provide better services for passengers.”

ENDS

For further information please contact the press office on 07984 773 468 (calls only no texts) or communications@bettertransport.org.uk

Notes to Editors

1. The Government published its long-awaited national strategy for buses, Bus Back Better, on 15 March 2021.
2. At the end of March 2021, there were 12,066 live local bus registrations in England (Source: Traffic Commissioners annual report 2020/21). As of 1 March 2023, there were 9,264 live local bus registrations (Source: Traffic Commissioners response to Freedom of Information request by Campaign for Better Transport, Ref: 2093/TC/ALL/FOI; the Traffic Commissioners’ office caveat there may be small discrepancies in previous years’ data.)
3. The Government committed £3 billion to Bus Back Better and has so far spent only £1.4 billion (BSIP funding: £1,041,100,000, ZEBRA (zero-emission bus regional areas) funding: £294,400,000).
4. Previous Campaign for Better Transport research showed that more than a quarter of English bus services have been lost in a decade, with services cut by 16 per cent in the first year of the pandemic alone.
5. The £2 bus fare cap is an England-wide Government incentive scheme to help passengers with the cost of living and caps a single bus journey at £2 until the end of June.
6. The Department for Transport is responsible for transport funding, but some local authority bus funding is allocated by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Despite being allocated to provide supported bus services, it is not ringfenced and as such can be spent on other local authority services instead.
7. In April 2022, the Government announcement that 31 local authorities – 40 per cent of all authorities which submitted Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs) – would benefit from a slice of the £1.1 billion in funding to improve bus services in their areas.
8. Campaign for Better Transport analysis highlighted how the competitive nature of Government funding for local transport is disadvantaging rural local authorities and failing rural communities. Read the analysis here.
9. Analysis by the Confederation of Passenger Transport shows that investing £10 billion in buses over the next five years would increase the number of bus services by seven per cent, improving services for an additional 20 million people, and generating £3.68 of economic benefits for every £1 invested.