Massive £32m to be spent on fleet of fully electric buses for Milton Keynes

A brand new fleet of fully electric buses worth £32m will be coming to MK, the Chancellor has announced in his budget today.

He confirmed that MK Council had been successful in its bid, in partnership with Arriva, for 60 of the new buses and an upgraded overnight charging depot.

£16m has been granted for this and a further £16m will be available through "special finance arrangements" that will be offered to MK, said the council today.

The first of of the new vehicles will be arriving in 2022.

Earlier this year, the Department for Transport announced its Zero Emission Bus Regional Access (ZEBRA) scheme and invited local authorities to submit their localised electric bus proposals for a share of £120m government investment.

The scheme is backed by private investment as well as government grant funding, which will help MK towards achieving the city’s 2030 carbon neutral target.

Council leader Pete Marland said: “We’re happy with this announcement which is a very important step in achieving our climate targets. We’ve shown that MK is fully invested in becoming even cleaner and greener, and that we have the partnerships in place to move quickly to a zero-carbon future with electric buses.”