Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will set a deadline for all buses to be electrified.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

In the National Bus Strategy, Government committed to setting a legal end date for the sale of new, non–zero emission buses, and to set an expectation for when the entire fleet should be zero emission. In 2022, the Department held a public consultation on end of sales dates between 2025 and 2032 to gather views and inform a decision. We will make an announcement shortly. In this Parliament, we have allocated over £460m of dedicated funding for Zero Emission Buses in England (outside London).

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress has been made on allocating remaining Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas funding for this financial year.

Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

In this Parliament we have awarded £320m of dedicated funding for ZEBs in England (outside of London). £270m was allocated to 17 local transport authorities (LTAs) through the Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) scheme, supporting up to 1,278 zero emission buses.

The Department will provide details on how future funding will be used shortly, taking into account the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many electric buses were introduced into (a) the UK and (b) Leeds in (i) 2019, (ii) 2020, (iii) 2021, (iv) 2022 and (v) to date in 2023; and what estimate he has made of the number planned to be introduced in (A) 2023, (B) 2024 and (C) 2025.

Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)

In the UK, in 2019, 105 Zero Emission Buses (ZEB) were registered for the first time. In 2020, this was 269, in 2021, 621, and for 2022, 649. This means, in 2021 and 2022, ZEBs equated to around 50% of new bus registrations in the UK.

In Leeds, 9 ZEBs were introduced in 2020, with a further 12 delivered in 2021. These were supported by the Department’s Ultra Low Emission Bus (ULEB) Scheme and through Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding.

As part of the Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) scheme, West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) received over £24 million to support 111 ZEBs, to serve Leeds, and other districts of the Combined Authority. Additionally, WYCA received funding through the Department’s Transforming Cities Fund (TCF) for a further 8 ZEBs. These are currently going through procurement exercises, and I would expect them to be delivered soon.

We also anticipate that up to the following ZEBs to be on the road over the next three years:

• 1,216 ZEBs funded by the ZEBRA scheme, and a further 20 Hydrogen buses funded by the ULEB scheme
• At least 63 buses funded as part of the Coventry All Electric Bus City scheme on top of the 112 already in service.
• 220 ZEBs funded by the Scottish Government
• 100 ZEBs funded by the Northern Irish Executive

I also welcome National Express’ recent announcement that they are investing in 300 UK-made electric buses, to be delivered by end of 2024. This investment was supported by uplift for ZEBs through the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG).

The Department will provide details on future ZEB funding shortly.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the proportion of Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas funding that will be spent on vehicle charging infrastructure.

Answered by Jesse Norman

As part of the Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) scheme, local authorities were able to bid for:

• 75% of the cost difference between a diesel bus and an equivalent zero emission bus, either battery electric or Hydrogen Fuel Cell buses.
• 75% of the total costs of infrastructure, either electric vehicle charging infrastructure or hydrogen refuelling infrastructure.

As the costs of zero emission buses and supporting infrastructure will vary between projects, the proportion of grant funding spent on supporting infrastructure varies between projects.

As a proportion of the total grant funding awarded for the entire scheme, approximately 19% of the costs relate to infrastructure, including both electric vehicle charging and hydrogen refueling infrastructure.