April 2025 Newsletter
Excellent response to our Capability Survey
A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to complete our recent Capability Survey. We received feedback from a wide range of officers across the region, and your insights will play a vital role in shaping the Centre of Excellence’s support programme over the next 12 months.
This includes:
Targeting expert support where it’s needed most
Co-developing practical tools and resources that reflect real-world challenges
Sharing knowledge and lessons learned across the South East
Supporting you and your teams to strengthen future funding submissions
We’re now reviewing all feedback and will present the proposed support programme to your authority’s representative at TfSE’s May Steering Group.
Centre of Excellence to support bus priorities
We’re pleased to confirm that Arup has been commissioned to support Local Transport Authority officers across the South East on three key bus-related topics. These focus areas have been requested by users of the CoE, and shaped by emerging priorities and the implications of the government’s English Devolution White Paper:
Bus Devolution: Provide clarity on the impacts of devolution for buses, helping officers understand the broader implications for decision-making, including infrastructure delivery and cross-subsidy arrangements.
Cross-Boundary Infrastructure: Explore how authorities can manage and fund bus infrastructure that crosses administrative boundaries – particularly as rising costs continue to challenge local delivery.
Cross-Subsidy Planning: Support officers to better understand cross-subsidy planning within a devolved context, and what this means for sustainable network management and funding decisions.
We welcome any input or suggestions you may have for these areas, particularly insights, examples, or challenges you’d like the work to reflect during development. You can do so by emailing coe@transportforthesoutheast.org.uk or clicking on ‘Got Feedback’ on the CoE website.
TfSE Centre of Excellence Nominated for National Award
We are delighted to have made the shortlist for the CIHT Awards for 2025, which celebrate excellence and innovation within the industry.
TfSE has been nominated in the highly competitive Collaboration award category for our Centre of Excellence, an online platform which we co-designed with our local authorities to best meet their needs.
This nomination is testament to the hard work and genuine collaboration shown by all our partners in the project. We’d like to extend our thanks to our 16 constituent local authorities, the Department for Transport, universities and professional institutes, as well as Arup who played a key role in helping to establish the Centre of Excellence.
The winners will be announced at the CIHT award ceremony in London in June.