Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department made an assessment of Shropshire Council’s Bus Service Improvement Plan before deciding the authority’s 2025-26 funding.

The government has confirmed £955 million for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. This includes £243 million for bus operators and £712 million allocated to local authorities across the country. Shropshire Council has been allocated £4.4 million of this funding.

As the Secretary of State noted in her oral statement to the House of Commons on 18 November, funding for local authorities has been allocated based on local needs, including population, the distance that buses travel, and levels of deprivation.