BUS funding in much of England has seen a second year of significant cuts, claim public transport campaigners.

Some 41% of local authorities have cut services this year, said the Campaign for Better Transport.

The cuts come on top of the major service reductions made in 2011/12, when one in five council-supported bus services were cut or cut back, it said.

In 2011/12, central government's spending review cut funding for local authorities' transport budgets by 28%.

Local council financial support for bus services was then expected to recover this year.

But a cut of 20% to the direct support all buses receive through the Bus Service Operators Grant from April 2012 seems to have caused a further round of cuts by local councils.

The research, carried out by Campaign for Better Transport using Freedom of Information requests, reveals that:

     * 41% of local authorities have cut spending on supported bus services this year. 10% made cuts of over £1m

     * Cuts from those councils reducing funding totaled £18.3m – 16 per cent of the budget for supported buses across England

     * There are differences between regions.

More than 100 supported services were lost this year in the South West, the report says.

Some 62% of local authorities in the East Midlands have cut funding for buses, it adds, while East Anglia has made the deepest financial cuts - some £4m.

The report claims the findings are supported by the Department for Transport's own statistics for 2011/12 which showed a 9% cut in tendered services and fares up by a third in five years.

Stephen Joseph, Chief Executive of Campaign for Better Transport said: "Buses are vital to communities and the economy.

"Without them many people are isolated, unable to access jobs or reliant on the car. By making year on year cuts like these, we run a very real risk of tipping services into a spiral of decline."

Some local councils were able to increase funding this year or persuade bus operators to run some services whose funding has been cut as commercial services.

With operators now struggling with cuts in support of their own from national government, the research suggests the risk of further cuts to come in 2013/14.

Overall local council budgets are due to be cut by 2 per cent in 2014/15 meaning budgets will remain very tight, it says.
Central government support for buses is being devolved to local authorities but may not be ring-fenced from next year, the report adds.

The report highlights the difficulties that cuts to bus services cause to different groups in society, particularly older and younger people.

The crisis of bus provision in England study can be downloaded here.