- Successive governments have aimed to improve bus services for passengers and attract more people to use buses, but passengers have seen services reduce and the commercial viability of the sector has weakened
- DfT has helped local areas to better plan for improvements, but most schemes to prioritise bus travel are yet to be delivered
- Gaps in local authority capacity and capability is a critical risk with 46% rating their capacity to deliver local transport “fairly poor” or “very poor”
Bus services in England have not recovered to pre-Covid levels which were already in decline, despite a number of interventions from the Department for Transport (DfT) to try to improve services, a new report from the National Audit Office finds.
As the most used form of public transport in England, local bus journeys accounted for around 1.8 billion journeys (outside London) in 2023-24 but both passengers and operators report a range of challenges.
Buses are essential for millions to get to work, education and other activities such as medical appointments. They are a particularly important form of transport for people on lower incomes, as well as the young, older people and people with disabilities. Households without access to a car make five times as many bus journeys.
The report found that the Covid-19 pandemic presented a particularly difficult challenge1 for the bus sector as passenger numbers plummeted. Government had to refocus planned financial support to the sector in order to ensure the survival of bus services.
Service use has not recovered to pre-Covid levels, with total number of bus journeys down by 9% in 2023-24, compared to 2019-20. The £2 bus fare cap introduced in 2023 contributed to an estimated 5% increase in bus usage but did not address other barriers to choosing buses, such as poor frequency or reliability. The government introduced a £3 bus fare cap in January 2025, which is due to end in March 2027.
The Department for Transport’s bus improvement plans have been a positive step, and the department’s work has improved how local government and bus operators work together, but many of the schemes to prioritise bus travel are yet to be delivered.
DfT’s approach currently requires all local transport authorities who are not pursuing franchising to develop ‘enhanced partnerships’2 with local bus operators, but the way these work can be improved. Franchising remains, according to local authorities, a difficult and expensive model to adopt. Bus operators are more reliant on public funding, which now accounts for half of their revenue. And they report their own issues, citing increased costs, particularly relating to wages and fuel.
Financial pressures on local authorities have led many to scale back their transport planning and delivery capacity.3 They report skills shortages and staff retention issues at a time when more responsibilities for buses are being devolved.
DfT recognises many of the issues hampering the development of better and more well-used bus services. But the report concludes that the department should develop its understanding of which capabilities different local transport authorities will need, to better target the support they receive.
It also recommends that DfT clearly and consistently communicates what its long-term strategic ambitions for bus services are – and sets out underlying plans so that the sector can organise itself to deliver them.
“Bus travel should be an easy and reliable transport choice but government’s attempts to improve services have not always worked. DfT should work with local transport authorities and the bus sector to maximise the impact of the available resources in reversing the decline in bus usage.”
Gareth Davies, head of the NAO
Read the full report
Notes for editors
- Between 2020-21 and 2024-25, DfT spent £2.0 billion on COVID-specific support to the bus sector, representing 34% of its total spend (£5.9 billion) on bus grants during this period.
- DFT’s bus funding has been split amongst various grants (Figures 8 and 9). This has increased the complexity and costs for central government, local transport authorities and bus operators. Funding inconsistency and uncertainty was the top concern raised by local transport authorities and operators alike when asked about the effectiveness of enhanced partnerships.
- Research commissioned by DfT found that 46% of local transport authorities rated their capacity to deliver local transport as very or fairly poor. This was particularly poor for county (7%) and unitary councils (12%). Those local authorities had typical transport team vacancy rates of around 20-25%.