Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 17
50th Report - Local bus services in England
Published 29 Oct 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Local bus services in England All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Department of Transport is encouraging more local transport authorities to consider franchising their bus services. Franchising, whereby local transport authorities take on more responsibility for bus services and award contracts to private operators, gives local transport authorities more control over bus services, for example, to decide routes and fares. Greater Manchester Combined Authority has franchised its buses, and five other mayoral combined authorities have completed an assessment to start the process. Franchising in other areas would require considerable time, investment and skills. The Department has estimated that the transition to full franchising could cost between £13 million and £22 million per local transport authority. However, it cost Greater Manchester £134.5 million and took seven years to franchise its network.38 In its written evidence to us, Transport for Greater Manchester acknowledged that franchising in Greater Manchester is still in its infancy, so it is not yet possible to draw definitive value for money conclusions.39
From: Public Accounts Committee, 50th Report - Local bus services in England (HC 892), 29 October 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fiftieth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 29 December 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fiftieth report from Session 2024-26
Published 19 January 2026.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees" with each of the Committee's recommendations, while saying it does not think it would be appropriate to set quantitative targets for national outcomes.
- On the vision for buses, the department intends to publish a summary of its vision and intended outcomes "in the next few months", but does not think quantitative national targets would be appropriate because they "would prejudge local choices and trade-offs".
- On funding, the Local Authority Bus Grant began consolidating funding in 2025-26; the Bus Services Fund is not ring-fenced, but funding letters will set an expectation that it is spent on eligible bus schemes, otherwise it "could be clawed back or reduced in future".
- On performance, the department gives a target implementation date of December 2026 for its outcomes framework and says it has been testing a basket of indicators with authorities through a 'Bus Indicator Pilot'.
- On concessionary travel, the department "will write to the Committee" within six months on barriers facing elderly and disabled passengers, with details of its plans to address them.