Rural bus services have decreased by 18% since 2019 due to insufficient transport funding in county and rural areas, new research reveals.

According to a report from the County Councils Network (CCN), one in five rural bus routes have disappeared over the last five years.

Researchers suggest bus services in county and rural locations experienced the ‘biggest decline in England’ between 2019 and 2024, receiving only 10% of the Government’s National Bus Strategy funding compared to major cities and towns.

Highlighting the uneven distribution of transport funding across the UK, the report reveals rural areas were allocated an average of only £31 per person to improve bus services since funds were released in 2022, versus the £58 per head in urban regions.

Whilst Portsmouth City Council received £252 per head from the Bus Service Improvement Plan funds, its neighbour, Hampshire County Council, was allocated just £14 per person, despite rural areas ‘representing 54% of the county’s population outside of London’.

In advance of the spending review, the CCN has emphasised that Government must increase funding in rural areas to help local authorities protect essential routes and ‘grow local county economies’.

Cllr Peter Thornton, Transport Spokesperson for the County Councils Network, emphasised the ‘clear demand for county buses’, which ‘are a lifeline rather than a luxury’ in rural areas.

‘With county and unitary councils increasingly constrained by funding pressures in care services, unless a greater proportion of funds go towards those areas for local buses, residents will continue to be let down’, he added.