Earlier this month, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that local authorities can now apply to become the UK’s first all-electric bus town, setting the ‘gold standard’ in environment-friendly public transport.

The winning area will receive up to £50 million to help pay for a brand-new fleet of electric buses “reducing emissions and cleaning up the air in their community.

A town with 200 electric buses could save around 7,400 tonnes of CO2 each year — the equivalent to taking 3,700 diesel cars off the road.”

The £50 million fund is part of a £170 million package allocated on 6 February to improve services and make bus journeys greener, easier and more reliable.

This commitment marks the next step in delivering the Government’s “£220 million package to overhaul bus services across England and level up transport infrastructure”.

Mr Shapps said: “Buses carry more people than any other form of public transport in the UK, and it is clear that they have a crucial role to play in reducing emissions.

"However, Britain’s first all-electric bus town is just the start.

"Helping to deliver on our manifesto promise, this £170 million package will help us to create communities that are cleaner, easier to get around and more environment-friendly, speeding up journeys and making them more reliable. By focusing on efficient and affordable transport, we will make greener journeys the natural choice.”

The Government is also making it easier and more convenient to take the bus by means of a new £20 million fund to encourage the development and trial of on-demand ride-sharing services in rural and suburban areas; another £30 million of funding in 2020/2021 has also been confirmed for local authorities to help them improve current bus services or restore those that have been lost.

Investments are also being made to speed up bus journeys. As part of the first tranche of the £2.5 billion Transforming Cities Fund, Derby and Nottingham, the North East, Portsmouth and Southampton will see the deployment of bus-priority traffic lights to speed up trips to the city centre.