Ministers to keep an eye on councils' bus service cuts

24 Oct 11
The Department for Transport is to monitor cuts to subsidised bus services in England, following MPs' fears about the effects on vulnerable people.

By Richard Johnstone | 24 October 2011

The Department for Transport is to monitor cuts to subsidised bus services in England, following MPs’ fears about the effects on vulnerable people.

Responding to a transport select committee report, the department agreed that a ‘better understanding’ of the cuts was needed.

Councils support routes that could not survive on a commercial basis, often because the number of passengers is low. They help to provide additional services at evenings or weekends, and in rural areas.

The committee’s August report examined the effect of the Comprehensive Spending Review on services in England, excluding London. It found that more than 70% of local authorities had reduced funding for supported bus services, forcing most operators to withdraw services or push up fares – or both. The cuts could also dissuade old, young and disabled people from taking up employment, education or voluntary work.

Now the government has said that it will work to provide more information on the extent of the cuts, which have been estimated to be as high as 20%.

The DfTt’s response said: ‘Changes to bus and community transport services are a matter for bus operators and local transport authorities and the government should not and cannot attempt to make an assessment of every individual change.

‘However, the government agrees that it is important we gain a better understanding of the overall impact of decisions taken by local authorities in respect of the tendered bus networks in their own areas. The work done by the committee in this area provides an excellent starting point, and the Department for Transport is now working with the Association of Transport Co-ordinating Officers to collate information in respect of tendered bus services across England.’

The department also defended the government’s 20% cut in the government’s Bus Service Operators Grant subsidy, which takes effect next April.

The committee had argued that the reduction in local authority funding coupled with the grant cut ‘created the greatest financial challenge for the English bus industry for a generation’.

However, the DfT said it‘ did ‘not accept the committee's criticism of its handling of reductions in BSOG’.

The grant cuts would have a ‘manageable impact on bus operators and passengers, when compared with reductions to budgets elsewhere’, it argued.

As the government response was published, transport committee chair Louise Ellman warned that the reduction in services already seen across England ‘will only get worse as the deeper cuts in funding take effect next year’.

She said: ‘It’s vital the government maps the impact of these cuts properly and publishes the information it gathers.’

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