That’s according to Sutton’s MP, Luke Taylor, who has visited the Sutton depot which employs 300 drivers.

He claims services may have to be withdrawn by bus operator, Go Ahead, due to the hike in employer National Insurance.

The Lib Dem MP is warning of a colossal loss to people who rely on the services to get to work, school or the GP.

Go Ahead needs to renegotiate a new contract with Transport for London for running particular routes.

Mr Taylor explains the implications if Go Ahead cannot continue to provide the routes.

Statement from Go Ahead:

“We’re extremely proud to operate bus services in London, on behalf of Transport for London, and we invest heavily in our people, technology and new buses to offer customers across London punctual, reliable and sustainable services. Unfortunately, external rising costs have made a handful of routes commercially unviable under the current terms. We fully intend to rebid for these routes on terms that allow us to continue our high standards of customer service and we will continue to operate these routes until the bid process has concluded.” Go-Ahead London

A TfL spokesperson said: “We know buses are an important lifeline for millions of Londoners. Reliable bus services with attractive journey times are essential to a successful transport network and we are working hard to ensure our bus network offers both to our millions of daily users. This includes our work to transform the way we manage London’s road network, developing new software to enable us to respond to incidents on the roads much more quickly, alongside a London-wide programme of traffic signal timing reviews to make sure each signal is working as safely and efficiently as possible. We’re regularly introducing new bus routes, including the SL11 this week, and the evidence is clear that passenger numbers are up, higher than expected on these new routes.

“We’re also working closely with boroughs and utility companies to reduce unnecessary disruption caused by roadworks and we continue to make significant improvements to the bus network – including greening the fleet, launching new Superloop services, boosting services on outer London and investing in more bus priority and even better real-time information for customers.

“We constantly monitor our network to ensure we keep London moving safely and effectively, and we work closely with bus operators to provide one of the best bus networks anywhere in the world.”