HCT Group was a

social enterprise A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners. Social enterprises ha ...

providing transport services and community services in several areas of the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1982 as Hackney Community Transport in the

London Borough of Hackney The London Borough of Hackney ( ) is a London boroughs, London borough in Inner London, England. The historical and administrative heart of Hackney is Mare Street, which lies north-east of Charing Cross. The borough is named after Hackney, Lond ...

, to provide transport services for local voluntary organisations, charities, and community groups. HCT Group was registered as a

company limited by guarantee A company limited by guarantee (CLG) is a type of company where the liability of members in the event the company is wound up is limited to a (typically very small) amount listed in the company's articles or constitution. Most have no share ca ...

(and therefore had no

shareholders A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of corporate stock refers to an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the ...

). The company was also a registered

charity Charity may refer to: Common meanings * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...

. By 2014, HCT Group had a fleet of 500 vehicles, turnover of £43.7 million, and employed over 700. The company expanded into several areas of England and the Channel Islands through a series of acquisitions in 2017 and 2018, but after financial difficulties following the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the HCT Group ceased trading and entered

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

in September 2022 after disposing of all its commercial bus services.

History

''Hackney Community Transport'' was established in 1982 when 30 community groups in the

formed a pool of six vehicles with a grant from Hackney Borough Council to provide low-cost

van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. There is some variation in the scope of the word across the different English-speaking countries. The smallest vans, microvans, are used for transporting either goods or ...

and

minibus A minibus, microbus, or minicoach is a passenger-carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, the word "minibus" is us ...

hire for local community groups, and a

door-to-door Door-to-door is a canvassing technique that is generally used for sales, marketing, advertising, evangelism or campaigning, in which the person or persons walk from the door of one house to the door of another, trying to sell or advertise a pr ...

alternative to

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

for

people with disabilities Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, ...

. The company's services were staffed by

volunteers Volunteering is an elective and freely chosen act of an individual or group giving their time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergenc ...

, but over the next decade a small group of paid staff built up to assist the volunteer workforce. HCT Group received loans from London Rebuilding Society to finance its entry to the bus industry.HCT Group
on http://www.londonrebuilding.com website, retrieved 8 October 2009 In 2004, HCT was contracted by EduAction to deliver 500 local special needs children to school and back each day for

London Borough of Waltham Forest The London Borough of Waltham Forest () is an Outer London, outer London boroughs, London borough formed in 1965 from the merger of the municipal boroughs of Municipal Borough of Leyton, Leyton, Municipal Borough of Walthamstow, Walthamstow an ...

from a new depot in

Leyton Leyton ( ) is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the Ri ...

. on HCT Group website, retrieved 19 October 2009 In March 2006, HCT expanded outside London to run eight yellow ''

My bus Metro is the passenger information brand used by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority in England. It was formed on 1 April 1974 as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE), at the same time as the metropolitan county of West Yo ...

'' school transport routes in and around

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

for

West Yorkshire Metro Metro is the passenger information brand used by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority in England. It was formed on 1 April 1974 as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE), at the same time as the metropolitan county of West Yo ...

. A further seven runs were added in September on HCT Group website, retrieved 19 October 2009 and three more in September 2007. on HCT Group website, retrieved 19 October 2009 In July 2006, HCT merged with Lambeth & Southwark Community Transport. Later that year on 1 October 2006, HCT began to operate the AccessBus service in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

and in 2008, merged with Leeds Alternative Travel. on HCT Group website, retrieved 19 October 2009 In March 2009, HCT Group published its first Impact Report. By 2010, HCT had grown by over a hundredfold since 1993 – from a turnover of £202k to a turnover of £23.3 million in 2009/10.Our lessons from the race for scale
on ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' website, retrieved 7 March 2011 In February 2010, CT Plus Yorkshire took over the

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

701 Priory Park & Ride route, with the aim of investing any surplus from its park-and-ride operation to expand a local community transport service and to set up training for long-term unemployed people in Hull. This was withdrawn in 2014, with Stagecoach taking over the service. In the same month, the company raised £5 million via a social loan. In 2017 and 2018, the group completed a series of acquisitions, purchasing Social Access, Bristol; Manchester Community Transport; CT4TC, a Derbyshire community transport operator since renamed Derbyshire Community Transport; Powells, South Yorkshire; and Impact Group, West London. Dai Powell, who had been chief executive since 1993, announced in April 2020 that he would retire from the post and be replaced by Lynn McClelland. Following the

, as well as a rise in costs for bus operators, HCT Group began to suffer from financial difficulties. On 29 September 2022, after disposing of its commercial bus operations in Yorkshire, Bristol, London and the Channel Islands, HCT Group ceased trading and formally entered

Social enterprise and transport

The British government has promoted the delivery of public services by

not-for-profit A not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization (NFPO) is a Legal Entity, legal entity that does not distribute surplus funds to its members and is formed to fulfill specific objectives. While not-for-profit organizations and Nonprofit organ ...

organisations (the third sector).AGENDA ITEM NO: 16. SUBJECT: COMMUNITY TRANSPORT
on

website, retrieved 9 October 2009 British prime minister

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

has stated that he wants more social enterprises running public services as part of his " Big Society".East London bus drivers picket bosses over pay
' on ''

Socialist Worker ''Socialist Worker'' is the name of several newspapers currently or formerly associated with the International Socialist Tendency (IST). It is a weekly newspaper published by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the United Kingdom since 1968, a ...

'' website, retrieved 6 January 2011 Charitable legal website ''Get Legal'' described HCT's

corporate structure A typical corporate structure consists of various departments that contribute to the company's overall mission and goals. Common departments include Marketing, Finance, Operations management, Human Resource, and IT. These five divisions represent ...

as allowing HCT Group to "separate the risks associated with its business in different

limited liability Limited liability is a legal status in which a person's financial Legal liability, liability is limited to a fixed sum, most commonly the value of a person's investment in a corporation, company, or joint venture. If a company that provides limi ...

vehicles A vehicle () is a machine designed for self-propulsion, usually to transport people, cargo, or both. The term "vehicle" typically refers to land vehicles such as human-powered vehicles (e.g. bicycles, tricycles, velomobiles), animal-powered tr ...

." The social mission of each of those vehicles is protected (either through

charitable status A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a cha ...

or through being

CICs IBM CICS (Customer Information Control System) is a family of mixed-language application servers that provide online business transaction management, transaction management and connectivity for applications on IBM mainframe systems under z/OS ...

), which sends a clear message to the public that the organisation is a social enterprise''.'' HCT Group says it aims to "demonstrate and promote the social enterprise

business model A business model describes how a Company, business organization creates, delivers, and captures value creation, value,''Business Model Generation'', Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners from 45 countries, self-pub ...

as a highly effective and

socially responsible Social responsibility is an ethics, ethical concept in which a person works and cooperates with other people and organizations for the benefit of the community. An organization can demonstrate social responsibility in several ways, for instanc ...

mechanism", and that it maintains

environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

health and safety Occupational safety and health (OSH) or occupational health and safety (OHS) is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at work (i.e., while performing duties required by one's occupation). OSH is re ...

, and

social policies Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize social policy and public policy to be two separate, competing approaches for the same public interest (similar to Compar ...

, and regularly measures its performance against these. Profit was seen by company CEO Dai Powell as enabling its social goals: "You have to be an enterprise first, because if you don't make a profit, you can't fulfil that social mission." HCT's commercial services allowed it to invest 18 per cent of its annual profits into non-commercial community transport in 2007/08. Its mission was to increase this to 30 per cent in the subsequent five years. HCT Group only competes for contracts that have high levels of accessibility and quality in the specification.
Social enterprise action plan: Scaling New Heights
', British cabinet paper, retrieved 8 October 2009 "HCT sees the provision of high-quality

public services A public service or service of general (economic) interest is any service (economics), service intended to address the needs of aggregate members of a community, whether provided directly by a public sector agency, via public financing availab ...

as a goal in itself...and actively seeks user input into the design and delivery of all its services." The CEO claims "we don't provide poor services for poor people – the quality has to be there.” HCT recruits

to train people with learning difficulties and

physical disabilities A physical disability is a limitation on a person's physical functioning, mobility, dexterity or stamina. Other physical disabilities include impairments which limit other facets of daily living, such as respiratory disorders, blindness, epilepsy ...

to use public transport independently.

noted that a community transport provider "...spends its surpluses on transport services in the community which are not commissioned from public bodies" but that "commissioning from the sector can however carry risks...organisations can lack capability and professionalism and be over reliant on individuals leading to instability." HCT Group was no more immune to

labour relations Labour relations in practice is a subarea within human resource management, and the main components of it include collective bargaining, application and oversight of collective agreement obligations, and dispute resolution. Academically, employe ...

problems than any other bus operator. The ''

'' described HCT as "no friend of workers" and its workers as "some of the lowest paid drivers in London". HCT Group prefers social enterprises and

co-ops A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...

business partner A business partner is a commercial entity with which another commercial entity has some form of alliance. This relationship may be a contractual, exclusive bond in which both entities commit not to ally with third parties. Alternatively, it may be ...

s and suppliers; when they raised £500k

impact investment Impact investing refers to investments "made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return". At its core, impact investing is about an a ...

from The Phone Co-Op in 2014, their CEO explained with investors as well as suppliers they want to "buy social". In 2018, HCT Group secured £17.8 million in funding to tackle social isolation, with the help of the investment bank ClearlySo.

Operations

London

CT Plus was founded as a wholly owned trading arm of HCT in 2001, and became a

community interest company A community interest company (CIC, pronounced "see-eye-see", or colloquially, "kick") is a form of social enterprise in the United Kingdom intended "for people wishing to establish businesses which trade with a social purpose..., or to carry on ...

in 2007. The company competed for contracts in the marketplace, and its profits were used by HCT to support community transport or other objectives such as training for the long-term unemployed. At first they operated a

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

contracted service, route 153. Routes 388 and

394 __NOTOC__ Year 394 (CCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in Western Europe as the Year of the Consulship of Flavianus without colleague (or, less frequently, year 1147 ''Ab urbe condi ...

were added in 2003. In August 2019, the CT Plus brand in London was dropped with operations brought under the HCT Group banner; the brand continued to be used in Yorkshire until August 2022. In the same month, HCT ceased operating Plus Bus route 812 and entered into negotiation with

Stagecoach London Stagecoach London is a major bus operator in Greater London. It is a subsidiary of Stagecoach and operates services under contract to Transport for London mostly in East and South East London, as well as some services running into Central Londo ...

to sell its 160-vehicle operation, following a period of ongoing financial difficulties for HCT Group.

Public services in London

Ash Grove (HK)

Ash Grove bus garage Ash Grove bus garage is a bus garage in Hackney, London, Hackney, East London owned by London Buses. It is located on Ash Grove, off A107 road, Mare Street, north of the Regent's Canal and is occupied by East London (bus company), Stagecoach Lo ...

in Cambridge Heath was HCT Groups' first London garage, and was shared with

Arriva London Arriva London is a bus operator operating primarily in Greater London and partially in Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus and operates services for London Buses under contract to Transport for London. Oper ...

. This garage operated 10 routes, including route 26 and route 394.

Walthamstow Avenue (AW)

In November 2016, HCT Group opened a second garage in

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a town within the London Borough of Waltham Forest in east London. The town borders Chingford to the north, Snaresbrook and South Woodford to the east, Leyton and Leytonstone to the south, and Tottenham to the west. At ...

. Before the company administration, Walthamstow Avenue operated routes 20, 385, 397, W11, W12, W16, W19 and 616.

Other London services

* Special Educational Needs Transport and coach and bus hire, in

Waltham Forest The London Borough of Waltham Forest () is an outer London borough formed in 1965 from the merger of the municipal boroughs of Leyton, Walthamstow and Chingford. The borough's administrative headquarters are at Waltham Forest Town Hall, wh ...

* Social services transport, in

Kensington & Chelsea The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (often known by its initialism as RBKC) is an Inner London, Inner London borough with Royal borough, royal status. It is the List of English districts by area, smallest borough in London and the secon ...

* Day Centre & Special Educational Needs Transport, in

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, which today also gives its name to the (much larger) London Borough of Lambeth. Lambeth itself was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey. It is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Charin ...

* Special Educational Needs Transport, in

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

* Impact Group, purchased from

Tower Transit Tower Transit Operations Limited, which traded as Tower Transit, is a bus company who operated in East and West London. They are a subsidiary of the Kelsian Group and operated services under contract to Transport for London. Currently they op ...

in August 2018

Fleet

The Transport for London fleet consisted of 85 buses in 2014, and had grown to 159 buses before the collapse of the company in September 2022.

Yorkshire

CT Plus (Yorkshire) operated from depots in

Brighouse Brighouse (, locally also ) is a town within the metropolitan borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated on the River Calder, West Y ...

and

, with a fleet of around 110 vehicles. The services in West Yorkshire consisted mostly of

tendered services: AccessBus, a

demand responsive transport Demand-responsive transport (DRT), also known as demand-responsive transit, demand-responsive service,
US National Trans ...

service providing local transport for those unable to use regular transport, and school buses, including some '

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...

school bus A school bus is any type of bus owned, leased, contracted to, or operated by a school or school district. It is regularly used to Student transport, transport students to and from school or school-related activities, but not including a charter ...

contracts. A few public routes were operated, around Wakefield, Huddersfield,

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district in West Yorkshire, England. It lies to the east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the ...

, and

South Elmsall South Elmsall ( ) is a town and civil parish in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. South Elmsall lies to the east of Hemsworth. The town had a population in 2001 of 6,107, increasing to 6,519 at the 2011 Census. History The tow ...

. In addition, some private contracts were operated, including two shuttle services for the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

. HCT Group acquired

Rotherham Rotherham ( ) is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies at the confluence of the River Rother, South Yorkshire, River Rother, from which the town gets its name, and the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don. It is the largest settlement ...

-based independent operator Powells Bus and Coach in July 2018, integrating the company, which ran services across

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

, as a separate part of CT Plus (Yorkshire). On 4 August 2022, the HCT Group announced that CT Plus (Yorkshire) and its Powells Bus operation would cease trading on 5 August, following a period of sustained losses due to the economic effects of the

and rising fuel and labour costs. All bus services in West and South Yorkshire operated by CT Plus would be transferred to the regional

traffic commissioner The Traffic Commissioners for Great Britain are responsible for the licensing and regulation of the operators of heavy goods vehicles, buses and coaches, and the registration of local bus services in Great Britain (as opposed to the entire Unit ...

for tendering to other bus operators.

Bristol

HCT Group operated local bus services in the

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

area under the name of Bristol Community Transport, as well as (from January 2019) the m1

metrobus Metrobus may refer to: Transport services Bus Rapid Transit *MetroBus (Bristol), a bus rapid transit system in Bristol, England, United Kingdom *Metrobus (Buenos Aires), a bus rapid transit system in Buenos Aires, Argentina *Metrobus (Istanbul), a ...

service under contract to

First West of England First West of EnglandCompanies House extract company no 25088
...

. BCT ceased operating their dial-a-ride and community transport operations on 26 August 2022 due to rising costs, with their local bus services following a week later on 2 September. When the business closed, operation of the m1 transferred to First, along with the 21 vehicles branded for the route.

Minor operations

HCT Group also operated a number of smaller community and mainstream bus services across the UK. *

Guernsey Guernsey ( ; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; ) is the second-largest island in the Channel Islands, located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. It is the largest island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes five other inhabited isl ...

public bus services, branded as buses.gg *

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

public bus services, branded as LibertyBus * Derbyshire Community Transport * Manchester Community Transport, 2018 to 2020 *

Park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail transport, r ...

bus service in

, 2010 to 2014

Community transport services

Before the company fell into administration, HCT Group operated: * Accessible

es for community and voluntary groups * 'Capital Call' – a door-to-door service provided by private hire vehicles for users with mobility difficulties * 'ScootAbility' – a

mobility scooter A mobility scooter is an electric personal transporter used as mobility aid for people with physical impairment, mostly auxiliary to a powered wheelchair but configured like a motorscooter. When motorized they function as micromobility de ...

home delivery service * 'PlusBus' – a bus service for those who have difficulty accessing mainstream transport * 'Door 2 Door' – a transport service provided by volunteers for Hackney residents * 'Integrated Transport Solutions' – a transport contract management service * 'YourCar' – a door-to-door service for registered users with mobility difficulties in the London Boroughs of

and

Education and training

HCT Group provided

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

services supported by the

Learning and Skills Council The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was a non-departmental public body jointly sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in England. It closed on 31 Ma ...

and the

London Development Agency The London Development Agency (LDA) was from July 2000 until 2012 the regional development agency for the Greater London, London region in England. A functional body of the Greater London Authority, its purpose was to drive sustainable economic ...

. The courses include

bus driver A bus driver, bus operator, or bus captain is a person who drives buses for a living. Description Bus drivers must have a special license above and beyond a regular driver's licence. Bus drivers typically drive their vehicles between bus st ...

training, particularly for

women A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional u ...

social care Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...

, and

management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

.' on company website, retrieved 4 January 2011

Corporate strategy

HCT Group's

corporate strategy In the field of management, strategic management involves the formulation and implementation of the major goals and initiatives taken by an organization's managers on behalf of stakeholders, based on consideration of Resource management, resources ...

was to generate profits from providing commercial transport services, then to use these profits to provide community transport services for people unable to use mainstream transport. The two modes,

and special need transport, are fully integrated under their model: "the investment in responsive community transport services is made possible by running the commercial activity well." The ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'' reported in 2010 that turnover had "grown by about 25 per cent a year for the past eight years and is expected to top £20m in the year to March 31, 2010, when profits will be around £1m."
‘Social loan’ for cause-based groups
' on ''

'' website, retrieved 4 January 2011 HCT's rapid growth is achieved by merging with smaller community transport organisations. HCT Group

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Dai Powell, in an article explaining the group's strategy, said the business aims to double in size every five or so years for the foreseeable future, seeing scale as "...crucial. The better we do commercially, the more we can do for the communities we serve as a social enterprise", and that the strategy is "maximising the good that we do... to be as bold as a commercial firm, but to the benefit of our communities, not to the owners of

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

. It also has the advantage of keeping our social mission absolutely central to our approach." Powell contrasted this approach to that of many third sector organisations "where

risk In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environ ...

is to be mitigated at worst and eliminated at best. This is simply hopeless for rapid growth." He describes the process as "...so much more rewarding than spending your days "maximising

shareholder value Shareholder value is a business term, sometimes phrased as shareholder value maximization. The term expresses the idea that the primary goal for a business is to increase the wealth of its shareholders (owners) by paying dividends and/or causing th ...

", whatever that means."''''

References

External links

*
Bristol Community Transport

CT Plus, London

Guernsey Buses

Liberty Bus, Jersey

CT Plus Yorkshire
{{Defunct British Bus Companies Alternative trading organizations Former bus operators in Bristol Former bus operators in West Yorkshire Former London bus operators Social enterprises Transport companies established in 1982 Transport companies disestablished in 2022 1982 establishments in England 2022 disestablishments in England Former bus operators in Greater Manchester Former bus operators in South Yorkshire Public transport in Jersey Public transport in Guernsey Former bus operators in Derbyshire