MPs have urged five-year funding settlements and a national minimum bus service for England in a Transport Committee report, which also calls for ringfenced support for socially necessary routes and a pilot of free travel for under-22s.
The cross-party report, ‘Buses connecting communities‘, published on 13 August 2025, links years of route and frequency reductions to lower ridership outside London and says ministers should set a coherent fares strategy, introduce rural-weighted funding and establish a dedicated framework for demand responsive transport.
It cites UK Department for Transport statistics showing journeys in England outside London fell by 11.9% between 2008-09 and 2018-19, and that the total number of bus journeys dropped from 4.6 billion in 2009 to 3.6 billion in 2024.
The report attributes declines to a combination of social and economic factors, including the pandemic’s effects on travel behaviour, cost-of-living pressures and a long period of stop-start funding.
The Committee also notes evidence that 56% of small towns can be classed as a “transport desert” and that millions of people experience transport-related social exclusion, with towns and smaller cities among the hardest hit.
Committee chair Ruth Cadbury MP said buses are “fundamental to many people’s quality of life,” adding that unreliable or non-existent services can cut off access to jobs, healthcare and education.
She said the government should provide five-year funding blocks to give councils and operators certainty and called for a universal youth concession to “equalise opportunity”.
The report states that while the national fare cap has supported recovery, ministers should set out a clear strategy for what fares are aiming to achieve and how local fare-setting should align.
Inquiry evidence included a Dorset resident in her seventies who said she had become “far more isolated, lonely and depressed” after local buses were cancelled.
The policy backdrop includes the Bus Services (No.2) Bill. MPs say the legislation would make franchising easier to adopt, strengthen enhanced partnerships, define “socially necessary services” and repeal the ban on new municipal bus companies.
Under franchising, a local transport authority determines routes, fares, service levels and vehicle standards while operators compete to run those services.
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The Committee recommends ringfencing a portion of central funding so that designated socially necessary routes are protected and says local authorities should set minimum connectivity standards appropriate to their areas, which could be delivered by fixed routes or demand-responsive transport (DRT).
It calls for a dedicated policy and regulatory framework for DRT within 18 months, including guidance on integration with local transport plans, optional access to nationally procured digital tools and consideration of VAT rules that can affect smaller-vehicle DRT.
MPs also recommend that within 18 months the government publish a national policy for buses setting clear objectives and a pathway to achieve them, alongside a new regional performance metric covering service frequency, reliability and passenger satisfaction to benchmark progress across England.
The report says the Bus Centre of Excellence should be expanded with dedicated support for rural and capacity-constrained authorities, including embedded regional advisory teams, access to legal and procurement advice and standardised templates such as data-sharing and non-disclosure agreements.
Citing the National Audit Office, the Committee notes that a transition to full franchising could cost an authority between £13m and £22m depending on size, and witnesses called for earlier access to operational data to strengthen local business cases.
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As an international comparator, the Committee points to Ireland’s Connecting Ireland programme, under which Local Link routes have expanded and rural patronage has grown significantly since 2019.
On funding, the Committee states that short-term allocations undermine planning and recommends five-year settlements for both capital and revenue.
It proposes a rural weighting in Bus Service Improvement Plan allocations to reflect longer distances and lower densities and suggests reforming the Bus Service Operators Grant – currently linked to fuel use – so that it better incentivises passenger growth.
The report adds funding context: public support accounted for around 77% of bus-sector revenue during the pandemic and about 50% in 2023/24, which it says reinforces the case for multi-year settlements.
It notes the government’s Spending Review commitment of around £900m a year for buses over the next three years and upcoming multi-year city-region settlements, and states that five-year deals across the country would support investment and patronage growth.
On delivery capacity, MPs state that franchising is not a “silver bullet” and that many authorities will need additional skills and support.
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Industry figures and organisations welcomed the report while emphasising different priorities.
The Local Government Association (LGA) said the Committee “sets out” the scale of the challenge and supported “sufficient, simplified and long-term funding,”, adding that stop-start grants risk losing passengers and that any minimum service or concessionary changes “must be fully funded”.
The LGA also noted its support for the extension of the national fare cap to the end of 2025 while warning that the fare increase will impact passengers.
ITS UK chief executive Max Sugarman said “current regulations can be a key barrier to the roll-out of DRT”, pointing to the VAT treatment of smaller-vehicle schemes and urging government to provide clearer guidance and tools so DRT becomes part of the wider network.
Campaign for Better Transport said the recommendations contain “the ingredients for a rural bus renaissance”, backing minimum service guidance and proper funding for councils.
Meanwhile, the RMT said it supported long-term funding, protection of socially necessary routes and repeal of the municipal bus company ban; general secretary Eddie Dempsey said enabling councils to run networks “could be a game changer” if supported by ringfenced funding and protections on jobs, pay and safety.
Bus Users UK called the report “a wake-up call and an opportunity” and supported a free pass for under-22s, noting that concessions must be matched by reliable, affordable and accessible services.
The Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) said operators back a national bus strategy and youth initiatives but argued that perceptions of a “decade of decline” are outdated, pointing to an 8% rise in journeys across Britain last year and a 10% increase in England outside London.
The CPT suggested one option for young people would be a £1 fare cap (similar to the scheme set to be introduced in Wales from September), estimated to cost £100-£150m a year, and said five-year funding visibility, ringfenced expenditure and bus-priority measures would be needed to deliver minimum service levels.
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