Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department plans to launch additional rounds of recovery funding through the Local Transport Fund.

The Government has provided over £2 billion in emergency and recovery funding for the bus and light rail services in England outside London since March 2020, including through the Local Transport Fund. On 17 May, the Government announced a long-term approach to support and improve bus services with an additional £300 million from July 2023 until April 2025.

£160 million of this funding will be provided to Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) through a Bus Service Improvement Plan plus (BSIP+) mechanism focused on improving bus services in local areas, whilst allowing local authorities to make local decisions on protecting services. The remaining £140 million will be provided to operators through a Bus Service Operators Grant plus (BSOG+) mechanism to help protect vital bus routes.

The Department has no plans to provide additional funding through the Local Transport Fund which will close on 30 June as previously announced. For English light rail systems outside London, recovery funding ended on 4 October 2022.