Andy Burnham wants to introduce a £2 cap on bus fares across the country if the public purse allows, according to his allies.
The incoming prime minister’s idea to lower the bus fare cap to support people with the cost of living has been backed by Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander – but is likely to depend on whether ministers can make a strong enough economic case to the Treasury.
The former Conservative government introduced a £2 limit on single fares from January 2023, which was raised to £3 under Labour from January 2025.
But as Mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham kept local fares capped at £2 across the local bus network, defying the increase elsewhere in England.
It comes as the new Labour leader is set to become the nation’s seventh prime minister in a decade on Monday, when he will deliver an inaugural speech promising “breathing space” to families struggling with the cost of living.
Burnham has promised to bring his brand of “Manchesterism” to the UK more broadly, with a programme of devolution and reindustrialisation to divert power away from Westminster and drive economic growth in every region.
A source close to a Labour metro mayor told The i Paper that the incoming prime minister wants to cap bus fares at £2 “if he has the money”, building on the policy he introduced across Greater Manchester’s Bee Network buses.
But the UK’s economic outlook remains challenging, with the Office for Budget Responsibility warning earlier this month that extra tax rises or spending cuts equivalent to the entire education budget are needed to prevent Government debt from spiralling higher than current levels.
Alexander is understood to favour a return to the £2 cap – and lobbied the Treasury to successfully fund free bus travel in England for children aged 5-15 during August.
She said ministers cut the cost of day-to-day bus travel over the summer as “the cost of living is a concern for households across the UK”.
Burnham recently said he wanted to look at supporting young people with the cost of bus tickets, saying in an Instagram video earlier this month he wanted to “see if there’s anything we can do to support young people with the cost of bus travel going forward”.
In Manchester, 16 and 17-year-olds can travel by bus for free across the region following a policy brought in by Burnham in 2019.
He also brought local buses back under public control during his tenure as mayor, with a franchising system that means local authorities can set routes, timetables and fare caps while private companies bid to operate services.
Burnham has signalled his intention to bring the Manchester blueprint to the rest of the UK, pledging to take greater “public control” of the country’s utilities in his first speech as Labour leader on Friday.
He is expected to place Thames Water, Britain’s biggest water company, into a special form of administration in what would be an unprecedented intervention into privately owned utilities.
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