Millions of people rely on local bus services to get them to work, school, job interviews, hospital appointments and shops. According to annual bus statistics [pdf] from the Department for Transport (DfT) there were 4.7bn passenger journeys on buses in England in 2013-14. But as austerity measures make mincemeat of council budgets many vital subsidised services – which provide a bus where one is needed but no commercially operated route exists – are disappearing.

In addition to the government’s 28% cut in funding for local authorities, the bus service operators grant, which provides a fuel duty rebate to bus service operators, has also been cut by 20%. Cash-strapped local authorities have responded by reducing their funding for bus services by £44m (15%), and more than 2,000 routes or services have been lost [pdf], according to the Campaign For Better Transport (CBT).

Although they only account for 19% of bus services in England outside of London, subsidised services are often the only form of public transport isolated people can access. In counties such as Hertfordshire, Derbyshire, Hampshire and East Sussex these services have been particularly hard hit. North Yorkshire has cut 90 bus services, according to figures the CBT obtained through freedom of information requests.

“Reducing the availability of buses will have significant long term impacts socially, environmentally and economically,” says Martin Abrams, public transport campaigner at the CBT, “Local and national government need to wake up to that, and quick.”

A third of all bus journeys are undertaken by the 10 million older and disabled people with concessionary bus passes. Councils have a statutory duty to provide them with free off-peak travel, yet the Local Government Association (LGA) says funding for the scheme has been cut by 39% during the life of this parliament.

“Years of underfunding of the concessionary travel scheme has forced councils to spend millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to subsidise the free travel that provides a lifeline to our most vulnerable residents,” says councillor Peter Box, transport spokesman for the LGA. “This is now becoming impossible, with councils having to make savings while struggling to protect vital services such as adult social care, protecting children, filling potholes and collecting bins.”

When services disappear young people, jobseekers, people on low incomes and those living in rural areas also suffer more than most; 64% of jobseekers either have no access to a vehicle or cannot drive, for example. Commercial services don’t seem to be filling the gap either: while the government’s annual bus statistics show bus mileage falling by 59m miles, commercial services have only increased by 33m miles.

In July the transport select committee published a report [pdf] examining passenger transport in isolated communities, which stated: “The DfT must recognise that passenger transport provision is fundamental to achieving the objectives of the Department of Health, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education in isolated communities.”

In November the government announced £25m of funding for minibuses for community transport operators. However, the transport committee has challenged the idea that community transport schemes run by volunteers can compensate for decreased bus services in isolated communities. Louise Ellman, transport select committee chair, has said that while the committee recognised their value, “many community transport schemes are tiny and only serve particular groups in the community” and that it was “unrealistic to expect volunteers to replace local bus services”. She also highlighted the need for a “total transport” approach to bus provision. “If, for example, hospital transport were combined with local bus services, it might revolutionise services for isolated communities,” she has said.

Organisations like the passenger transport executive group (pteg) and CBT have also campaigned for total transport trials, and in January the government appeared to take note, announcing a £4m pilot scheme that will allow several local authorities to test the concept.

While he welcomes the pilot, CBT’s Abrams says it is not a magic bullet. “What buses need like any other transport mode is investment, and it seems at the moment they are being left out of the government’s long-term economic plan,” he says.

With that in mind, the CBT and pteg are also calling for a ring-fenced connectivity fund to help address the cuts made to council bus budgets, which would bring together the operators grant with top slicing from other government departments.

Box, of the LGA, agrees that the grant could be better allocated. “Rather than supporting commercially viable services, the bus service operators grant should be devolved to councils so that public funding can be better targeted according to local needs,” he says.

Stagecoach, Arriva, Go-Ahead, First Group and National Express control 72% of local bus services outside of London. Labour says the firms made a combined operating profit of £518m in 2011-12, yet fares have increased by 25% under the coalition – five times faster than wages.

If the party wins in May, Richard Burden, the shadow roads minister, says Labour will seek to “devolve the powers and funding needed to ensure city and county regions can deliver fair fares”. For example, councils will be given the power to award local licenses and make it easier for not-for-profit operators, including community groups, to run local bus services.

London’s franchised bus network is in a markedly different to position to bus networks elsewhere in the country. More than 500 extra buses are planned for the next few years in order to keep up with demand and population growth in the capital; passenger levels have more than doubled since the mid-1980s, with more than 6.5m passengers carried every day. In addition, £200m has been earmarked to improve the reliability of the bus network.

The government has pushed ahead with plans to devolve more transport powers to Greater Manchester, which will allow it to develop its own franchised bus network and seamless smarter ticketing systems. But unless more funding and a joined-up approach to bus service provision make it to other parts of the country, it seems likely that further routes will be lost over the course of the next parliament.

More in the series on transport policy post May 2015:
• The road ahead: how will the election result affect UK drivers?
• Up ahead: how will the election result affect UK air passengers?
• Full steam ahead: how will the election result affect UK rail passengers?

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