HCT Group

Hackney Community Transport (HCT) was originally founded in 1982 when around 30 local community groups in the London Borough of Hackney pooled their vehicle resources, helped by a grant from Hackney Borough council.

Formally incorporated in 1983, it was one of the many small community transport organisations across the country that provided low-cost minibus transport to community groups, marginalised communities, non profit organisations and social clubs.

HCT chose to trade rather than rely on diminishing grants. For HCT, being a social enterprise means they are a business that trades to tackle social problems, improve communities and people’s life chances, and to protect the environment.

Today, HCT Group provides over 30 million passenger trips on its buses every year. HCT Group has become a social enterprise at national scale, growing at an average of 24 per cent per year for 20 years, with contracts won in competition with the multi-national giants of the transport industry.

HTC operates a fleet of over 750 vehicles from sixteen depots across London, Yorkshire, the southwest, the northwest and the Channel Islands, with a staff team of over 1,800 and a 2017/18 turnover of £62.9m.

HCT Group (the holding company for HCT’s operations) is a registered charity with the Charity Commission and a private company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales. This charitable status provides for asset and mission locks. This means HCT cannot be sold for private gain and cannot distribute profit to shareholders. The mission lock enshrines the HCT social purpose as HCT’s first priority.