The Government has announced how £1 billion in funding will be used to bring London-style buses to cities across the UK as part of a major Budget boost. Transport Secretary Louise Haigh confirmed that £712 million will be allocated to local authorities to improve services, with an additional £243 million for bus operators. Ms Haigh said that the investment aims to end the “complicated and inconsistent” funding models that have affected passengers for years. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Well, this is the first time that we have allocated all our bus funding in a fair, transparent
00:05and simple way that is based on need across the country. The previous government took
00:09bus funding and they turned it into a competition, pitting areas against each other and wasting
00:14money on bid writers and writing applications to then leave some areas with absolutely nothing.
00:20Our formula that will allocate the money is based on levels of deprivation, on bus mileage
00:24and on population. So it means areas like Essex, like Kent, like Devon and Blackburn
00:29will get more levels of funding than they have ever had before and that will directly
00:32translate into more services and more reliable buses. The previous government, when they
00:37cancelled HS2, made all kinds of promises but none of it was agreed with Treasury, none
00:41of it was funded through a budget or a spending review, so it was meaningless. This is brand
00:45new money that has been negotiated with the Treasury and allocated during the spending
00:48review and all that money is going into local areas, dedicated to bus services. Like I say,
00:54the previous government racked it up, they put conditions on it, we are making sure that
00:57it is out the door, areas know exactly what they are receiving and it can all go on delivering
01:03better bus services for local people.