The government will analyse how it supports the bus industry beyond the end of the Bus Recovery Grant (BRG) in England on 30 June, Under-Secretary of State for Transport Baroness Vere told the House of Lords last Thursday.
In the Parliamentary debate, the government was taken to task on the “hand-to-mouth” funding system and spoke about local-authority devolution, passenger volume recovery, concessionary fares and the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP).
Lib Dems’ Baroness Randerson spoke of an “urgent need for reform of bus service funding and an end to this hand-to-mouth approach”, while Conservatives’ Lord McLoughlin referred to the “uncertainty about what will happen after 30 June”.
That is the date that the government’s Bus Recovery Grant (BRG) revenue support and the Bus Fare Cap Grant (BFCG) scheme is due to end. The BRG succeeded the COVID-19 Bus Service Support Grant in September 2021 and was initially due to end last April before a series of extensions. The £2 fare cap began in January for a supposed three-month stint and operators were given another lifeline in February with news it would last until June.
Baroness Vere admitted that the short-term nature of funding was “not ideal” but said it had been “necessary” over a transitionary period since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“From the Government’s perspective, we have had to see what happens to patronage and where service levels have ended up, given the current levels of support,” she told the House. “We are also looking at the impact of the £2 bus fare cap. All these things are going into our analysis of what we may be able to do to support the bus sector after 30 June.”
The former buses minister said the government would look at reforming the Bus Services Operators Grant (BSOG) this year and added: “This is a very important amount of money: some £250 million goes into the sector, which keeps bus fares low, but we have to make sure that it also supports net zero.”
Passenger numbers
She was asked what specific assessment the government had done to explain the 18% drop in passenger volume compared to before the pandemic. The government’s analysis was this was due to changes in concessionary travel and people working from home.
Concessionary fares
Further pressed on concessionary fares, the Department for Transport Minister said: “We are not planning any changes to the levels of concessionary bus fares, but we are looking closely at the implementation of the concessionary fares scheme. Over the course of 2023 we will look closely at the reimbursement guidance and the calculator to make sure that bus operators are getting the correct amount of money for the people they carry.”
Devolution
Responding to a call for devolution to local transport authorities, Baroness Vere pointed to the current system in place and added: “Local transport authorities are required to produce an enhanced partnership, which is between them and the bus operators. If they do not want to do that, they can take all the powers they want and franchise the whole system.”
Bus Services Improvement Plan
The Under-Secretary of State was confronted by Labour’s Lord Blunkett on South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority’s two failed bids for Bus Services Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding.
She replied: “We asked all local transport authorities to prepare bus service improvement plans; some were better than others, and the best ones were given funding.
“Regarding the ones that were not so good, we supported the local transport authorities by providing them with revenue support so they could upskill their staff and improve their BSIPs for the future. I believe that is what happened in South Yorkshire, and I very much hope it has been able to use the money we gave it successfully.”
Disability concerns
Baroness Vere responded to a question on disabled people’s ability to get to work in the light of cuts to trends in bus services. She replied: “As we set out in our long-term national bus strategy, ensuring the safe and comfortable movement of all people on buses, including those with accessibility issues, is an absolute priority.”
