Bus Franchising - Where are we now? A progress summary

With elected Mayors across the country openly demonstrating confidence in securing bus reform through the route of a statutory bus franchising scheme, attention is now required to the progress being made across multiple projects of this kind.

Combined Authorities are at the heart of the process with the legal right to progress a bus franchising scheme into the formalities of delivering local bus services under the franchised arrangements. Within Freeths we are monitoring the progress of these initiatives and in this briefing can be found our progress chart across all Combined Authorities currently working through the franchise process.

The table below sets out for each Combined Authority the current progress made. No authorities are at this time undertaking procurement exercises. It is notable that procurement processes embarked upon on or after 28th October will be undertaken within an entirely new procurement regime. No authorities have currently indicated an actual date for the launch of their procurement process (by issuing a tender notice). All that are less advanced than Liverpool City Region and West Yorkshire will undoubtedly follow the new rules.

In the case of Liverpool City Region, the elected Mayor has recently announced his intention to expedite the process. So that authority is one to monitor closely. In the case of West Yorkshire, a paper presented to the last Combined Authority meeting suggests that the first tender process will begin in Q3 of 2025.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has just launched its statutory and public consultation process with South Yorkshire and West Midlands likely to follow in the Autumn. The overall picture is summarised in the table below:

The Progress Summary

Valid as at 14^th August 2024, here is a progress summary across all Combined Authorities that propose to implement bus reform through franchising. Note that all Combined Authorities have scheduled meetings for September. Depending upon progress made with audits, we can expect South Yorkshire to proceed at that point to the statutory and public consultation phase and potentially also, West Midlands.

Combined Authority	S123B Notice published	Assessment  Completed	Statutory Audit Completed	If current, consultation closing date	Decision taken to proceed	Tender Notice Published	Date of next Combined Authority meeting1
Liverpool City Region CA	√	√	√		√		20th September
West Yorkshire CA	√	√	√		√		19th September
South Yorkshire MCA	√	√					10th September
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CA	√	√	√	20th November			4th September
West Midlands CA	√	√					13th September
North East CA	√						17th September

Footnote

1. Dates noted are the scheduled dates for the next Combined Authority meeting at which update progress reports can be expected to be taken. Reports should be available on the authority’s website one week before the event. Papers can however be delivered on an urgent basis later than that usual requirement

What about other authorities?

In a series of Mayoral elections in May of this year, manifestos of the successfully elected Mayors in other Combined Authority areas also pledged to undertake bus reform with franchising the stated preferred option. The list of authorities pursing franchising will undoubtedly increase in coming months. We will keep this table up to date as developments occur.