MILLIONS of people across the country will be able to make greener, cleaner journeys as almost 1,000 green buses are rolled out with the backing of nearly £200 million in Government funding.

Twelve areas in England, including West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire, will receive grants from the multi-million-pound package to deliver electric or hydrogen powered buses, as well as charging or fuelling infrastructure, to their region.

The funding comes from the Zero Emission Buses Regional Area (ZEBRA) scheme, which was launched last year to allow local transport authorities to bid for funding to purchase zero emission buses.

The £198.3 million of funding will provide 943 buses, and builds on almost £71 million announced last year to support up to 335 new zero emission buses in five areas.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “I will level up and clean up our transport network. That’s why I’ve announced hundreds of millions of pounds to roll out zero emission buses nationwide.

“Not only will this improve the experience of passengers, but it will help support our mission to fund 4,000 of these cleaner buses, reach net zero emissions by 2050 and build back greener.

“Today's announcement is part of our National Bus Strategy which will introduce lower fares, helping drive down the cost of public transport even further for passengers”.