On Friday 5 December, the BBC published a story on the south west pages of its website entitled "Cash boost to help 'stabilise' region's buses”. It said, "About £90m is going to be invested into improving bus services around the South West, the government has confirmed. It said Cornwall Council would receive about £30m, Devon and Torbay £43m, and Plymouth £14m.” MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport Luke Pollard said, "This is good news for our city and importantly it's not just Plymouth that's benefiting - it means more money for Devon, more money for Cornwall and that's good news for the entire region," he added.
£30 million sounds like a lot of money for bus services in Cornwall and the initial reaction of most people would be that this is good news and that, hopefully, passengers would see improvements in services in the county. I was interviewed early on Friday morning by Radio Cornwall about bus services but, at that stage, I had no real information about this announcement of funding and was unable to make any comment about it. Since then, I have done some research to see if this money really will mean an increase in funding for services. Unfortunately, like so many of these high profile announcements by politicians claiming to be showering money on good things, the truth is somewhat different.
Central government has, for many years, given money to local transport authorities for revenue and capital projects associated with bus services and these monies have been an integral part of how a local transport authority is able to offer at least a semblance of support for bus services. Central government has usually insisted on the local transport authorities jumping over a few hurdles before handing out the money. For example, Cornwall Council has produced documents called Enhanced Partnership Plan and Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP). In 2025/26, central government is giving Cornwall Council £10.59 million made up of £5.48m BSIP revenue funding, £4.24m BSIP capital funding, and £0.87m Bus Services Operators Grant (BSOG).
The money proposed in the latest government announcement will replace the BSIP and BSOG funding with one pot. The figure of £30m quoted in the press is comprised of £6.78m p.a. revenue funding for each of the three years of 2026/27, 2027/28, 2028/29 and capital funding rising from £3.22m to £3.35m p.a. over these years. The total for each year of £10.00-£10.13m. is thus actually less than what Cornwall Council is receiving in 2025/26.
In other words, whereas Luke Pollard claimed that the announcement meant “more money for Cornwall” it actually means that Cornwall will receive less next year than it received this year and it will be virtually frozen for the two years after that. Given that this year, bus passengers in Cornwall have seen fare rises in January and again in August, and First Bus have decided that their situation is so bad that they are withdrawing from Cornwall in early 2026, and the current government funded cap of £3 on single fares is scheduled to finish in March 2027, freezing government funding for bus services is, unfortunately, bad news and I cannot share Mr Pollard’s optimism.
Links:
Department for Transport local authority bus grants revenue
Department for Transport local authority bus grants capital
BBC news item
Cornwall Council enhanced partnership and BSIP