Almost £200 million is set to come to the East Midlands for transport across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham, and Nottinghamshire.
This significant funding – comprised of several different sources – has been given to East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) from the Department for Transport and is for the year 2025/26.
It includes a new pot of money specifically for Mayoral Combined Authorities: an extra £66 million, on top of last year’s commitments, which pushes the transport budget for next year to nearly £200 million.
This will allow EMCCA to invest in creating better connections between cities, towns and rural areas, making it easier and cheaper to travel around the whole region. It will help give people more choice on how they travel and will make networks safer and improve public spaces.
It will further support major network improvement schemes and improve the reliability of bus services, making them more accessible for everyone and providing better facilities and information for passengers. It will also help to move to fully zero emission bus fleets and support the development of and connectivity to the region’s growth zones.
More money will also go towards highway surface improvements – a local authority responsibility – so they can fill potholes and improve our roads.
Mayor of the East Midlands, Claire Ward said:
“I am delighted we have been given this additional funding to invest in our roads and local transport programmes across the region.
“This is more than filling potholes and getting people from A to B, it’s about transforming lives and communities, and it will give us a fantastic opportunity to connect people across the region and make it easier to access jobs, skills training, health appointments, and our incredible tourist attractions.
“We will work closely with key partners and councils to make sure every penny of this funding makes a difference. The ambition is to create the best possible transport system for the East Midlands and this funding will help us towards achieving this. We want to transform transport opportunities for all those who live, work and do business in our region, as well as those who come to visit our amazing places – creating a region where everyone has the chance to succeed.”
The funding is both capital and revenue and is derived from the following sources:
Highways Maintenance
Integrated Transport
Active Travel 5
Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIP)
City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements 2 – early release
EMCCA is the single public transport body for the whole region and services and resources from councils are currently being transferred over to the Authority.
