£80 million has been awarded in first-year Bus Service Improvement Plan Plus (BSIP Plus) settlements to 63 local transport authorities in England as part of the government’s longer-term approach to supporting services to April 2025.
29 of the awards are for in excess of £1 million. Essex County Council gets the most, at £4.89 million, while receiving the least is West Berkshire Council at £239,000.
Each LTA that has not received an allocation of first-year BSIP Plus money gained funds via the BSIP process of 2022. 18 authorities will receive support from both schemes, although of the 12 recipients of the largest BSIP sums, only two get BSIP Plus funding.
In a letter to operators on 18 May, Under-Secretary of State for Transport Richard Holden confirmed that the £300 million in total allocated to directly supporting bus services to April 2025 will be split into two equal pots for July 2023 to April 2024, and April 2024 to April 2025, respectively. Of that, £160 million will go to LTAs and £140 million to operators via BSOG Plus (BSOG Plus).
Mr Holden adds that the BSIP Plus money is intended to help improve buses while allowing LTAs “to make local decisions on protecting services.” On BSOG Plus, he says that the £70 million that will make up the first period’s allocation will be paid as an uplift to existing BSOG rates.
In alphabetical order, Bus Service Improvement Plan Plus allocations are as follows; those LTAs not mentioned will not receive money from the fund:
Bedford Borough Council: £546,757
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council: £470,171
Blackpool Council: £506,488
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council: £617,511
Bracknell Forest Council: £325,716
Buckinghamshire Council: £1,310,333
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority: £2,314,172
Central Bedfordshire Council: £350,457
Cheshire East Council: £1,187,596
Cheshire West and Chester Council: £1,291,071
Cornwall Council: £1,969,162
Cumbria County Council: £876,873*
Derby City Council: £323,606
Devon County Council: £1,677,393
Dorset Council: £884,221
East Riding of Yorkshire Council: £1,141,576
Essex County Council: £4,890,976
Gloucestershire County Council: £2,209,623
Hampshire County Council: £3,579,462
Herefordshire Council: £952,037
Hertfordshire County Council: £1,488,381
Hull City Council: £756,530
Isle of Wight Council: £290,025
Kent County Council: £2,301,397
Lancashire County Council: £2,247,177
Leicester City Council: £727,289
Leicestershire County Council: £1,788,514
Lincolnshire County Council: £2,120,280
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority: £3,119,118
Medway Council: £768,780
Milton Keynes Council: £654,193
North East Lincolnshire Council: £280,128
North Lincolnshire Council: £547,379
North Northamptonshire Council: £569,412
North Yorkshire Council: £1,463,688
Nottingham City Council: £445,022
Nottinghamshire County Council: £1,210,428
Oxfordshire County Council: £963,741
Plymouth City Council: £816,563
Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead: £437,116
Rutland County Council: £253,280
Shropshire Council: £1,490,492
Slough Borough Council: £343,267
Somerset Council: £737,079
South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority: £3,151,353
Southampton City Council: £639,575
Southend-on-Sea City Council: £479,250
Staffordshire County Council: £1,327,673
Suffolk County Council: £1,878,427
Surrey County Council: £3,923,922
Swindon Borough Council: £415,830
Tees Valley Combined Authority: £1,529,477
Telford and Wrekin Council: £650,938
Thurrock Council: £432,857
Torbay Council: £403,923
Warwickshire County Council: £2,072,248
West Berkshire Council: £239,039
West Northamptonshire Council: £687,109
West Sussex County Council: £1,102,400
West Yorkshire Combined Authority: £3,875,221
Wiltshire Council: £2,115,269
Wokingham Borough Council: £401,322
Worcestershire County Council: £1,429,686.
*Funding for Cumberland Council and Westmoreland and Furness Council will be determined from the sum formally allocated to the now-defunct Cumbria County Council.
Bus Service Improvement Plan indicative allocations as announced in 2022 can be found here.