Who is responsible for local transport in England?

Local authority responsibilities

Local transport includes local roads, parking, buses, taxis and private hire vehicles, light rail and active travel (cycling, walking and wheeling).

Unitary and upper-tier (county) councils are primarily responsible for local transport. This is through their statutory duties as the local transport authority, highway authority and traffic authority for their area.

Unitary and county councils are primarily responsible for developing local transport plans and policies to meet the needs of their area; maintaining and managing local roads; provision of on-street parking; partnership working with bus companies to improve bus services; and supporting active travel.

District authorities and unitary authorities are responsible for the licensing of taxis and off-street parking in their areas.

Combined authorities (in their role as a local transport authority) are responsible for coordinating transport across their region, including for example, managing the key route network of roads, and light rail systems.

Mayoral combined authorities, through individual devolution deals, have agreed with Government various powers in relation to local transport that to date other local transport authorities have not had. For example, the ability to franchise bus services.

Local authorities also support wider policy objectives through their local transport remits, including decarbonisation and development of emerging technologies.

English devolution and changes to local transport

The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill brought before Parliament in July 2025, proposes some changes to local transport responsibilities.

The proposed changes include strategic authorities (previously known as combined authorities) becoming the sole local transport authority for their area. Strategic authorities (and county or unitary authorities where a strategic authority does not exist), would also be given powers to license micromobility providers, such as those running e-scooter schemes.

The Government’s 2024 English Devolution white paper also proposes further changes to local transport arrangements. These include, for example, consulting on the transfer of responsibility for taxi and private hire vehicle licensing to all local transport authorities, and greater local control over rail stations.

The Bus Services (No 2.) Bill, currently before Parliament, would also extend the power of local transport authorities in relation to bus franchising and would remove the ban on local authority bus company ownership.

History of metropolitan transport

Six mayoral combined authorities (Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, South Yorkshire, North East, West Midlands and West Yorkshire) have Passenger Transport Executives that operate as executive bodies of the combined authority, supporting the delivery of the combined authority’s transport objectives. This arrangement is in large part due to the way local transport legislation for coordination of transport across metropolitan regions has developed since the 1960s.