How can your Authority build in-house skills for bus reform?

The Bus Services Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025. It removed the need for Secretary of State consent, so any local transport authority in England may now choose to franchise its buses.

Under the Bus Services Act 2017, franchising was a long and complex process, so few Authorities pursued it. Greater Manchester was the first to use those powers, and it took five years for its first franchised routes to arrive.

In July 2026, the government’s Rewiring the State statement promised mayors wider transport powers. It also promised a programme of capacity and capability support for strategic authorities.

The legal and political framework is now in place. Each Authority must now decide whether and how to use these powers.

Franchising moves decisions on routes, fares and service standards to your Authority. Under a gross-cost contract, your Authority normally receives the fare revenue and carries the demand risk.

Your Authority must then specify the network, procure the contracts, mobilise the service and manage performance for years after Day One.

An Enhanced Partnership or BSIP-led route gives your Authority less direct control. You still need the skills to set standards, use evidence and hold Operators to account.

This work goes well beyond transport planning. It calls on senior sponsors, programme teams and colleagues leading finance, legal, procurement, commercial, operations, ticketing, data, technology, customer and communications work.

Authorities begin with very different resources. An LGC analysis in August 2026 found that West Yorkshire Combined Authority has almost 1,000 staff, while Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority employs fewer than 100.

The pool of specialists is small. Liverpool City Region, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough have all decided to franchise. Other Authorities are weighing their options under the new Act, and many will be looking for the same skills at the same time.

A new recruit may join your Authority before it has settled its decision rights or assurance routines. Skilled people need clear routines in which to work.

Capacity is the number of people available and the hours they can give. Capability is what those people can do together. Your team can be fully resourced and still lack the routines and judgement to run a transport operation.

The government’s new secondment programme will add people to mayoral authorities for six to nine months. We have also explored how Authorities can get lasting value from that support.

Recruitment is one lever. Your Authority will need experienced people, and many may come from Operators, suppliers and advisers.

Recruitment on its own can leave your Authority relying on a few individuals. When they move on, their knowledge goes with them.

The same applies to advisers and consultancies. They bring useful specialist knowledge and can help at peak points in a programme. If your Authority relies on them for everyday judgement, that knowledge leaves when each contract ends.

Training and mentoring can help more people develop and share that knowledge across your Authority.

A single training event can be useful for an isolated topic. It rarely connects to your Authority’s live programme or to the learning that comes before and after it.

We run Right of Way as a capability programme for transport authorities. Our ten core courses follow the order in which your Authority makes its decisions. They sit in three blocks.

We deliver Right of Way in partnership with Castlefield Recruitment and North West Employers. Together, this brings recruitment and in-house capability building into the same offer.

Every course begins with a short diagnostic of your Authority’s current position. Your team works on its own problems using its own evidence. We use reference cases from urban and rural Authorities. We examine franchising, partnership and other options fairly, and we do not steer you towards a particular choice.

Every course adds a usable output to your Authority toolkit. Your Authority owns it and can carry it straight into its work.

Courses 1, 3, 6 and 9 are useful whichever delivery route your Authority chooses. If your Authority has not yet decided, it can start with these four.

Each course has stated learning outcomes and applied exercises. Your delegates receive a certificate of attendance recording their CPD hours.

Your Authority can commission a single course, a block of courses, the full programme or a role-based route. You can shape the route around your lifecycle stage, current maturity and the decisions that fall due.

This lets your Authority buy the capability it needs when its programme needs it.

Before commissioning capability support, ask:

Our Right of Way programme overview sets out the ten core courses and how each one fits your delivery route.

To discuss what your Authority needs, email contact@intelligenttransportadvisory.co.uk.