Buses in Manchester are set to be taken over by the local council is seems. Not sure which companies are affected but Stagecoach is one of them and has launched judicial review so they are obviously affected. Go North West (formally first bus) is another big operator in Manchester so guessing they are affected too. Private companies will still run the day to day aspect of running the routes however the local council will decide which route run and how frequently and what fares to charge.
This is has already partially happened in the North with GNE operating on instructions from council as to what to run and when since the covid outbreak. GNE have been unable to make any profit for month after being part funded to keep services running. GNE are desperate to hit the ground running when things start to open up in order to get back on its feet with various ideas to get going X11 for example. Is it too little to late though, has the dice been cast? Will the North east buses be set for a local council takeover. A lot of people in the industry think its completely inevitable that this will happen at some point.
All info taken from BBC, Evening Standard papers so before shouting "thats not correct, your wrong" (often in more angle Saxon terminology) please refer to newspapers.
Manchester buses takeover