[5] 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 HCT Group ceased trading and entered administration in September 2022 after disposing of all its commercial bus services.

[9] HCT Group received loans from London Rebuilding Society to finance its entry to the bus industry.

[10] 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 from a new depot in Leyton.

[11] In March 2006, HCT expanded outside London to run eight yellow My bus school transport routes in and around Wakefield for West Yorkshire Metro.

[25] 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.

[26] Following the COVID-19 pandemic, 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 administration.

[27] British prime minister David Cameron has stated that he wants more social enterprises running public services as part of his "Big Society".

"[31] HCT's commercial services allowed it to invest 18 per cent of its annual profits into non-commercial community transport in 2007/08.

[33] West Yorkshire Metro 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.

[36] In 2018, HCT Group secured £17.8 million in funding to tackle social isolation, with the help of the investment bank ClearlySo.

[37] CT Plus was founded as a wholly owned trading arm of HCT in 2001, and became a community interest company in 2007.

[38][39] 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.

[citation needed] CT Plus (Yorkshire) operated from depots in Brighouse, Wakefield and Leeds,[49] with a fleet of around 110 vehicles.

[61][62] HCT Group also operated a number of smaller community and mainstream bus services across the UK.