City's buses hailed as model as Government sets out to scrap ban

NCT AN EXAMPLE OF SUCCESSFUL SERVICE, SAYS MINISTER

- By JOE LOCKER Local democracy reporter

A MINISTER says the Government is scrapping a national ban on council-run bus companies after Nottingham City Transport's success "proved the approach can work".

In the 1980s most public bus services outside London were deregulated and privatised, leading to the mass sale of council-run bus companies.

While metropolitan mayors were later given franchising powers in 2017, giving them greater control over the private firms that now operated them, councils were at the same time banned from setting up bus companies themselves.

One of the outliers was Nottingham City Transport - NCT - which managed to stay largely in the hands of Nottingham City Council and the public. The Labour-led council continues to be the majority shareholder, despite Transdev, the UK arm of the French multi-national transport operator, acquiring an effective 18 per cent stake in the company in 2000.

NCT is not profit-driven, and typically aims for a margin between five and eight per cent each year, with much of this going back into services.