Introduction to bus grants
Rural Bus Subsidy Grant
The Rural Bus Subsidy Grant was introduced in 1998/99 and provides for additional local bus services to rural communities previously not well served. The grant is distributed to English local authorities and allocations are based on numbers living in rural area. Total allocated to authorities for 2003/04 is £48.5m. Decisions on which services to support are essentially for the local authority.
Rural Bus Challenge
The Rural Bus Challenge is an annual competition in which local authorities bid for funding for schemes aimed at stimulating innovation in the provision and promotion of rural public transport, improving quality and choice across the country. The Challenge approach enables the best ideas from local authorities to be supported. The lessons learnt at each stage of the process are being built on year on year, encouraging flexibility and availability of services to all. The grant can be spent in more than one year up to the total amount awarded.
Urban Bus Challenge
The Government has also introduced an Urban Bus Challenge scheme, and local authorities were invited to enter bids for the first year of UBC funding last summer. The overall aim is to contribute to regeneration of deprived urban areas by improving transport provision and to target support on areas of economic or social deprivation. Bids can be made for support for specific schemes, with DTLR funding then being awarded to the best schemes submitted. £46m has been made available for the scheme. The results of the first round were announced last November; 32 schemes were given funding totalling £15.3m. There will be another round of the competition later this year
Bus Service Operators Grant
Rates of fuel duty are a matter for HM Customs and Excise. However, you will wish to know about the bus Fuel Duty Rebate (FDR) scheme, now known as the Bus Service Operators' Grant (BSOG), under which bus operators who operate local registered bus services are already entitled to a grant, paid by this Department, to reimburse the major part of the excise duty paid on the fuel used in operating local registered bus services.
The grant was introduced under the Finance Act 1965 and is now paid under powers in the Transport Act 2000. It is available to all bus operators whose services are registered with the Traffic Commissioner and which meet the strict criteria and rules of the scheme. From 1 May 2002 the scope of the scheme has been extended to include a wider range of Community Transport Services.
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