Bus industry representative bodies have called upon Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to deliver a long-term funding settlement to support the industry in England outside London as part of his autumn fiscal statement on 17 November.
A letter sent by Campaign for Better Transport Chief Executive Paul Tuohy, and with cosignatories including Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) CEO Graham Vidler and outgoing Urban Transport Group Director Jonathan Bray, says that the industry recognises the need to move away from short-term measures. But it asks Mr Hunt to put in place:
- Accelerated reform of funding arrangements for buses and trams, including a pot of capital and revenue support ringfenced for those modes; enhanced revenue funding that can deliver National Bus Strategy aspirations; and long-term settlements for local transport authorities (LTAs), conditional on them achieving a “coherent set of objectives”
- Protection of spending already in place for buses and trams for the current spending period, suggesting that the bodies are concerned that some such commitments may be under threat
- A short-term funding guarantee to ensure no further network reductions until reformed funding arrangements are in place
- Targeted funding for LTAs that were not allocated Bus Service Improvement Plan money.
The message underlines that depressed patronage means that with a planned end to Bus Recovery Grant funding after March 2023 and reductions to concessionary reimbursement set to return it to actual numbers from the same time, “any increase in passengers by that date is not expected to be large enough to make up the funding gap.”
In addition to Mr Vidler being a cosignatory of the letter to Mr Hunt, CPT has said that a long-term bus funding package should be worth £10 billion over five years. That would see the number of services increase by 7% and deliver major environmental, decarbonisation and public health benefits, the Confederation says.
It has been suggested that Mr Hunt will introduce spending cuts worth £35 billion in his fiscal statement. “Balancing the books… cannot be at the expense of our public transport network,” the industry letter to him urges.
That message notes that local authority budgets are already under “severe strain” and that “many cannot afford to support [bus] services.” CPT adds that a long-term settlement would additionally attract further private investment in zero-emission vehicles.
