Return of New Bus Grant?

Sort of.

In something that might be akin to the bus grant of the 1970s, the European Investment Bank is understood to be developing a financing package that will fund up to 75 per cent of costs to help cities improve their energy efficiency and buy cleaner, hydrogen fuel cell or hybrid bus fleets. It foresees an initial €15mil to assist cities in developing projects but this could jump to billions, it is believed. The facility awaits official approval.

Funding will target projects that can deliver on the EU's 20-20-20 policy: reducing greenhouse gases by 20 per cent and covering 20 per cent of its energy needs with renewables, by 2020.

The EIB proposals are said to be flexible enough to deliver not just to the public transport authorities common in western Europe but the new landscapes of recently joined eastern states and deregulated England.

Bus Grant was a feature of the 1968 Transport Act. It offered a 50 per cent grant to speed up the modernisation of UK bus fleets and lasted in that form till 1980 when the then government began reducing it, till its demise in 1985.