The Transport Committee of the UK Parliament has today (13 August 2025) published the report Buses connecting communities. The report highlights that the long-term decline in local bus networks has left many without access to reliable services and calls for more ambitious action to reverse long-term decline of Buses.

The report follows the Committee’s inquiry into the effectiveness of recent Government policy in tackling the decline in bus services and cites written evidence submitted by CIHT.

The Committee has taken forward several calls made by CIHT, including the need to shift to a five-year funding settlement for bus services, better funding support for socially necessary services, and support for the technical expertise required for local authorities to franchise bus services.

CIHT welcomes the recommendations made in this report, which have the potential to boost ridership and ensure that all communities have access to necessary services.

The Committee has recommended that the CIHT-managed Bus Centre of Excellence (BCoE) is expanded to include a dedicated support strand for rural and other local transport authorities which may struggle to implement franchising successfully within their current capacity. This is welcome recognition of the important role BCoE plays in building capacity across the sector.  

The Committee has also recommended moving to a five-year funding settlement for bus services, for both capital and revenue spending. As cited in the Committee's report, CIHT highlighted in its written evidence short-term and piecemeal funding frameworks undermined the ability of authorities to plan strategically. CIHT’s recent report, Unlocking the benefits of long-term funding for local roads, highlights that long-term funding models enable better planning, procurement, innovation, and delivery.

Other recommendations made by the Committee to the Department for Transport (DfT) include:

• Ensure that there is funding to support the provision of socially necessary services by ring-fencing a dedicated portion of its bus grant funding or by other means.
•  Introducing a rural weighting into its revised Bus Service Improvement Plan funding formula to reflect the higher per-passenger costs and structural challenges of serving low-density areas.
• establish minimum standards for bus stop facilities and the provision of real time information at bus stops where appropriate.
• As part of its upcoming Integrated National Transport Strategy for guidance on how local authorities and transport providers can achieve more effective integration between bus timetables and those of other transport modes.
• Piloting a free bus pass for under-22s, valid for travel at any time of day.

CIHT looks forward to continuing to work with the Transport Committee on the topic buses and assisting them with a variety of their inquiries.

CIHT also looks forward to working with the Department for Transport and Local Authorities to deliver the recommendations from the Transport Committees inquiry into ‘Buses connecting communities’.