The Somerset Bus Partnership has welcomed a £24.7m boost for the county's bus services up to 2030.
The Department for Transport (DfT) provides every local authority in England and Wales with annual funding to subsidise local bus services and associated infrastructure, known as the local authority bus grant.
This grant replaced the grants provided for each council's bus services improvement plans (BSIPs), which were introduced by Boris Johnson's Conservative government in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
Somerset has received a multi-year settlement, with the funding being more or less evenly split between capital funding (which can be used for new buses, bus stations or other major projects) and revenue funding (which can be used for day-to-day spending, including capping the cost of tickets).
Somerset Council has also welcomed the settlement, stating it will allow it to continue providing vital support to local buses services.
Read more
Under the latest settlement, the council will receive a total of £24,741,113 between the 2026/27 and 2029/30 financial years.
Of this, £13,148,886 comprises revenue spending (up to April 2029), which can be used to reduce running costs for passengers - for instance, by capping the fares on the Taunton park and ride service.
The remaining £11,592,227 consists of capital funding (up to April 2030), which is typically used on projects such as the delivery of Taunton's new transport hub and its rural counterpart in Langport.
Both sets of funding run alongside the £3 single fare cap, which the government has pledged to keep in place until March 2027.
Barrie Childs from the Somerset Bus Partnership welcomed the announcements when the council's planning and transport policy executive sub-committee met in Taunton on December 10.
He said: "In addition to this, £3m is available for bus franchising expenses, should Somerset go down that road - it's a good award, and it's very good news.
"Now that this information is known, can the council please provide an assurance that your supported bus budget will continue to be funded to at least the current business year's supported value?"
The council provides revenue support to a number of bus services which have marginal commercial viability but serve key areas of the county - such as the 25 service between Taunton and Wiveliscombe, and the 28 service between Taunton and Minehead (via Williton and Watchet).
These subsidies have been regularly reviewed, in consultation with the bus companies and the Somerset Bus Partnership, in light of the council's ongoing financial issues - with the authority facing a £73m budget gap for the next financial year.
Councillor Mike Rigby, portfolio holder for economic development, planning and assets, said that "place-holder" savings in this area had been removed from the council's budget in light of the Labour government's announcement.
Mr Rigby (who represents the Lydeard division near Taunton) said: "Previously, we had place-holder savings proposals in the medium-term financial plan.
"This was included originally because we thought that there may need to be an adjustment around the amount of funding that we allocate to supporting bus services at some point in the financial cycle. This saving proposal has now been removed.
"The government is providing ongoing additional revenue support to councils via the bus grant (formerly BSIP), to enable them to continue to support services that are not commercially viable and to improve services in general.
"In accepting this grant, it is expected that we will retain current levels of council funding for supporting public transport services.
"We'll continue to review the services that we support as part of our annual 'business as usual' conversations with bus operators, led by what they can operate commercially and what gaps there may be in socially necessary service provision each year."
Share