Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he (a) is taking and (b) plans to take steps to help ensure that councils provide access to bus services for isolated communities in North Shropshire constituency.

I recognise the importance of transport provision in rural and isolated areas and we as a Government are committed to finding solutions which ensure that local communities in areas such as those in North Shropshire have viable and improved transport services.

We have provided nearly £1.86bn in emergency and recovery grant funding for bus services in England outside London to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic. Shropshire Council has so far received a total of £2.17m. Shropshire have also been allocated a further £558,906 through the Local Transport Fund, to continue supporting bus services from April until October, as well as £512,447 in funding from the £42m LTA Bus Service Operators Grant in 2020-21.