The government has revealed the list of successful bidders for the £143 million in funding made via the second round of the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas scheme (ZEBRA 2).
The purchase of 955 zero-emission buses for 25 local authorities or joint schemes will be supported. The first £40 million will be prioritised for rural areas, partly funding 318 vehicles.
The overall sum is more than the £129 million initially promised. Of that amount, the Department for Transport indicated during the application process that at least the first £25 million would be prioritised for rural, with potential extension of that to £50 million.
The latest allocations are on top of the £268 million handed out to 16 councils in the first tranche of ZEBRA funding.
Fifty-eight expressions of interest were received from local authorities – either submitted solely or in combination with another – but DfT has not released how many bids were submitted.
The largest allocation is for West Sussex County Council at £10.1 million, although DfT indicates this is conditional. Plymouth City Council (£9.5 million), West Northamptonshire Council (£9.4 million) and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (£9.4 million) are also among the biggest winners.
Tees Valley Combined Authority will be funded to the tune of 62 buses, which is the highest number of any local authority supported by ZEBRA 2.
The South West receives around 30% of the allocation with £43.4 million going to nine local authorities. The region’s Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and North Somerset councils are among the rural areas supported. Those nine local authorities also included Leicestershire County Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, Staffordshire County Council and Warwickshire County Council.
DfT is contributing up to 75% of the cost difference between a zero-emissions bus and a standard conventional diesel equivalent of the same total passenger capacity. Vehicle orders must be placed by 31 January 2025.
The majority of the funding will be handed out by the end of March with the remainder to follow in the next financial year.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper says: “As part of our plan to improve local transport across the country, we’re providing a further £143 million to improve journeys for bus passengers particularly in rural areas, with almost a thousand brand new, zero-emission buses due to hit the road.
“This latest investment into our bus fleet comes on top of the £3.5 billion we have invested into our bus network since 2020, protecting and improving bus routes into 2025 as well as extending the £2 bus fare cap until the end of 2024, made possible by reallocated HS2 funding.”
The Confederation of Passenger Transport highlighted, via its report last month, Delivering Zero Emission Bus Services to Rural Areas, the particular challenges faced by rural operators in decarbonising their fleets.
Alison Edwards, Director of Policy & External Relations at CPT, says: “CPT welcomes this latest allocation of £143m from government to help accelerate vital public and private investment in new zero emissions vehicles and charging infrastructure.
“We also welcome government’s recognition of the particular difficulties faced by rural areas in moving to zero-emission bus fleets, as set out in CPT’s Rural Zero Emission Bus Taskforce’s (RZEBT) recent report.”
“The transition to a zero-emissions bus fleet is a huge opportunity for Britain to lead the world in creating a modern zero-emission bus network that offers a growing number of passengers one of the most sustainable forms of transport.”
| Local Transport Authority | Allocation | Number of buses |
| NORTH WEST | ||
| Liverpool City Region Combined Authority | £9,400,000 | 58 |
| North West total | £9,400,000 | 58 |
| NORTH EAST | ||
| Tees Valley Combined Authority | £7,400,000 | 62 |
| Transport North East | £7,400,000 | 43 |
| North East total | £14,800,000 | 105 |
| YORKSHIRE AND THE HUMBER | ||
| Hull City and East Riding of Yorkshire Council | £5,700,000 | 40 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber total | £5,700,000 | 40 |
| EAST MIDLANDS | ||
| Derbyshire County Council* | £5,100,000 | 57 |
| Leicestershire County Council* | £8,100,000 | 46 |
| Nottinghamshire County Council* | £2,800,000 | 23 |
| West Northamptonshire Council | £9,400,000 | 51 |
| East Midlands total | £25,400,000 | 177 |
| WEST MIDLANDS | ||
| Staffordshire County Council* | £3,100,000 | 17 |
| Warwickshire County Council* | £4,300,000 | 27 |
| West Midlands total | £7,400,000 | 44 |
| SOUTH WEST | ||
| Cornwall Council | £1,300,000 | 8 |
| Devon County Council* | £5,300,000 | 41 |
| Gloucestershire County Council* | £5,900,000 | 58 |
| North Somerset Council* | £2,100,000 | 24 |
| Plymouth City Council | £9,500,000 | 50 |
| Somerset Council* | £2,200,000 | 25 |
| Torbay Council | £7,100,000 | 49 |
| West of England Mayoral Combined Authority | £6,600,000 | 74 |
| Wiltshire Council | £3,400,000 | 23 |
| South West total | £43,400,000 | 352 |
| SOUTH EAST | ||
| Brighton and Hove City Council | £2,900,000 | 16 |
| Essex County Council | £4,800,000 | 55 |
| Isle of Wight | £4,500,000 | 22 |
| Surrey County Council | £3,200,000 | 19 |
| West Sussex County Council† | £10,100,000 | 43 |
| Reading Borough Council | £4,700,000 | 24 |
| South East total | £30,200,000 | 179 |
| ENGLAND TOTAL | £142,800,000 | 955 |
| * Rural
† Funding for West Sussex’s project is conditional |
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