Buses are the most commonly used form of public transport, external in Great Britain.
But services have been in long-term decline, with the pandemic hitting passenger numbers and profits hard.
According to the Department for Transport, external, the number of local bus passenger journeys in England rose by 19.4% to 3.4 billion in the year ending March 2023.
This is much lower than usage levels before the pandemic, when journeys totalled 4.1 billion in the 12 months ending March 2020.
Until the 1980s, most bus services were delivered through publicly owned companies, often run by councils, but in 1986 services outside London were deregulated and privatised, leading to the mass sale of council bus companies.
In London a franchising system was introduced, with Transport for London deciding routes, timetables and fares and operators bidding to run services for a fixed fee.
There are only a few areas in England where the local bus company is still owned by the council, and currently only areas with metro mayors can introduce “franchising” to private companies.
In the run-up to the general election, Labour pledged, external that it would hand all local transport authorities the power to run their own bus services and lift restrictions on new, publicly owned bus operators.
Ms Haigh said that after “decades of failed deregulation… local leaders will finally have the powers to provide services that deliver for passengers”.
But shadow transport secretary Helen Whately said Labour’s plans were “unfunded” and the government needed to explain whether local authorities would be expected to raise tax or cut services to fund the proposal.
“Moreover, it won’t make a blind bit of difference for passengers.
“It won’t increase the number of services and they would much prefer to have the £2 fare cap extended at the Budget,” she added, referring to a policy introduced by the Conservative government, external to cap single bus fares on participating bus routes at £2, which has been extended until December.
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