Burnham announces bus fares across England to be capped at £2

Single bus fares across England will be capped at £2 from January, the prime minister, Andy Burnham, has announced.The nationwide cap is currently set at £3 until the end of March 2027 although some areas – including London and Greater Manchester, where Burnham set a £2 limit as mayor – have lower top rates for single tickets.The measure, which will apply across England except London, is backed by £454m of funding, including money to allow devolved governments to take similar action.About £400m of that funding will come from switching investment in international climate finance to loans, with the rest from savings in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero budget.The total cost of the scheme is expected to be more than £500m, with the rest coming from Department for Transport funding already allocated to buses.The £2 cap will be in place throughout 2027 and reverses an increase put in place by Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves in 2024.A £2 cap had been in place between January 2023 and December 2024 but the incoming Labour administration argued it was not affordable, although some metro mayors, including Burnham, decided to fund an extension of the lower limit in their areas.Burnham said: “Good, affordable transport links are an essential. No one should be priced out of those and left behind.“But for too long people have said that cheaper transport isn’t an option. I don’t accept that. I’ve done it before and I will do it again now: a £2 cap on bus fares for millions across the country.“Lower fares will help people get to where they need to – giving them breathing space to help with the cost of living.”The measure is backed by £454m of funding, including money to allow devolved governments to take similar action.The chancellor, John Healey, said millions of people would benefit from fares being slashed by a third and insisted the measure could be paid for. “This action to ease the cost of living is funded by savings made elsewhere, so there’s no burden to British taxpayers, just pounds going back into their pockets,” he said.The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, said the move would make “everyday journeys easier and cheaper”.