Give city regions funding to upgrade their bus, tram and train services to make them as good as London’s

Our verdict

• This is a commitment to allocate funding to “city regions” to enable their public transport services to reach the same standard as London’s.
• In the March 2020 Budget, the government confirmed investment of £1 billion for shortlisted cities, and plans for a further “£4.2 billion…for eight Mayoral Combined Authorities”. The November 2020 Spending Review added a £300 million investment to “drive transformation of bus services”, and in March 2021 the National Bus Strategy was published, promising a £3 billion investment to improve bus networks.  The March 2021 Budget announced “capacity funding” for seven city regions as a first step to implementing the promised intra-city transport settlements. Against these developments, in January 2021, the government slashed funding for Transport for the North, a key body in delivering city region transport improvements, and regional inequalities in transport investment persist.
• The public transport impact of COVID-19 has been severe, leading to the launch of a Transport Committee inquiry, and even prior to that the London model itself had been beset with financial difficulties. The advances towards disbursal of intra-city transport settlements, and the new National Bus Strategy, demonstrate a degree of commitment to fulfilling this policy, although that is tempered by cuts to the Transport for the North budget and ongoing inequalities in transport investment.  For now, this policy remains ‘in progress’.