Andy Burnham caps bus fares at £2 in another bid to help with the cost-of-living

The new prime minister Andy Burnham has confirmed that he will cap all single bus fares outside of London at £2. 

The government has said that this will help millions of people save a third on bus travel from 1 January 2027, for one year. 

It also argues that the policy will help boost bus use, pointing to the last £2 fare cap, which saw an estimated 30 million more journeys taken by bus in just 10 months.

The previous Conservative government capped single bus fares in England at £2 in January 2023. The cap was increased to £3 under Keir Starmer’s government in January 2025.

The policy mirrors what Andy Burnham did as mayor of Greater Manchester, where he brought in a £2 bus cap in September 2022.

In London, the mayor Sadiq Khan has already put a £1.75 bus cap in place. 

It is expected to cost more than £500 million, and will be paid for by taking some of the money allocated to grants for international climate projects and making them into loans. 

The Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said there is also some “underspend” in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero budget which they will be using.

Alexander also said that some Department for Transport money will be used to pay for the continuation of the £3 bus cap into next year.

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.”

Commenting on the policy, TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: “Andy Burnham’s government is right to prioritise action on the cost of living.

“Along with the tax cut to energy bills, capping bus fares is a good start and means working people can get around for cheaper. That’s good for households, businesses and local economies.”

However, economics and environment policy chief at left-wing think tank the New Economics Foundation, Alex Chapman, has said a £2 cap  is “not going to be enough” to convince people to use the bus instead of a car.

Chapman also told Radio 4’s Today programme that “The actual scale of this is very limited. It’s really the reinstatement of a policy that we had only a couple of years ago.”

He said he would love to see more ambition on cutting bus fares for youths, adding that a £1 bus fare cap would make the service “much more competitive” with the cost of a car.

Elsewhere, Burnham has reportedly dropped his plan to increase the tax-free personal allowance, which has been frozen at £12,570 since 2021.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward