Spending Review: Chancellor warned on further bus cuts after a quarter of subsidy wiped out

A total of £78m or a quarter of all subsidy for bus services has been taken away since 2010 with £22m in cuts this year alone, campaigners highlighted as they warned the Chancellor off further cuts.

The Campaign for Better Transport released a report, Buses in Crisis, revealing £22m has been cut from supported bus funding in England in 2015/16, with the largest cuts in Hertfordshire, Surrey, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Bristol and East Sussex and 40 cutting more than 10% from bus funding. Eleven local authorities now spend nothing on supported bus services.

The CBT wants the Bus Service Operators Grant to be protected as a ring-fenced fund in the future and, in the longer-term, a 'connectivity fund' bringing together different funding for transport across Government. The shadow transport secretary Lilian Greenwood seized on the report as showing that the nation's bus services are truly in crisis" and urged reform.