New prime minister Andy Burnham has announced that the bus fare cap in England will revert to £2 from January, a policy expected to cost more than £500m. The government said it would “help with the cost of living and give people the breathing space they need”.
The cap had risen to £3 under Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government at the start of last year, though fares in Liverpool and Manchester remained at £2. Burnham said affordable transport links were essential: “Lower fares will help people get to where they need to.” The measure offers “a little bit of hope” for those grappling with higher living costs, particularly after fuel costs spiked due to the US-Iran war, transport secretary Heidi Alexander told the BBC’s Today programme. But she admitted it was “not the whole solution”.
“PM Andy Burnham reverts England bus fare cap to £2 from January in £500m cost-of-living measure.”
The new cap applies to participating buses outside London from January next year; a single journey in the capital already costs £1.75. The Burnham government said the £2 cap should particularly help passengers in rural and coastal areas, where single fares can be higher. However, the Campaign for Better Transport’s Michael Solomon Williams warned that rural areas still suffer from fewer bus routes and services, worsened by council cutbacks over the last decade. Services in those areas—measured by vehicle miles—decreased by 18% between 2019 and 2024, according to the County Councils Network.
“What we need to see is the replacing of those lost services which have particularly affected those in rural areas,” Williams said.
In other nations, public services in Northern Ireland will receive a small amount of additional money, though ministers are not obliged to spend it on public transport. The exact amount will be known in the autumn budget. Scotland and Wales will get equivalent funding for the bus fare cap scheme. The Scottish government, which piloted a £2 cap across the Highlands and Islands for a year, said it was looking at introducing legislation for a £2 cap across all of Scotland by the end of this parliament. Single fares are already limited to £1 for under-21s in Wales.
The £2 cap was first introduced in 2023 as a cost-of-living measure and to encourage people back onto buses after the pandemic. The Office for National Statistics said it helped reduce inflation that year. An evaluation of the first ten months found it contributed 5% of the 13% rise in bus usage during that period, with lower-income passengers benefiting most.
Meanwhile, chancellor John Healey has echoed Burnham’s language, saying he is “just as concerned” by costs facing businesses as those facing households. Healey said bosses also required “breathing space” to manage burdens from energy, labour and supply chains, and would aim to ease cost pressures.