The £2 bus fare cap will be replaced by a new £3 cap until the end of 2025 at this week’s Budget, the Prime Minister has confirmed. In a speech in Birmingham, Sir Keir Starmer said he knows “how much this matters”, particularly to people who live in rural communities.
The increase will be announced at Rachel Reeves’ first Budget on Wednesday as the Government tries to bridge what it has called a £22 billion “black hole” in the public finances. Sir Keir told the audience: “On the £2 bus fare, first thing to say is the Tories only funded that until the end of 2024 and therefore that is the end of the funding in relation to a £2 capped fare.
“I do know how much this matters, particularly in rural communities where there’s heavy reliance on buses. And that’s why I’m able to say to you this morning that in the Budget we will announce there will be a £3 cap on bus fares to the end of 2025 because I know how important it is.”
In the same speech, Sir Keir also said that the Chancellor will announce £240 million in funding for local services to help get people back to work when she delivers her fiscal statement in two days’ time. The Prime Minister said the UK is “the only G7 country for whom economic inactivity is still higher than it was before Covid ”.
“That’s not just bad for our economy,” he said. “It’s also bad for all those who are locked out of opportunity. So the Chancellor will announce £240 million in funding to provide local services that can help people back into work.”
The Prime Minister also set out his approach to a Budget for “working people”. Ministers have been facing repeated questions over the Government’s definition of “working people”, after Labour’s election manifesto pledged not to increase taxes on working people – explicitly ruling out a rise in VAT, national insurance and income tax.
They have come under pressure to spell out precisely who would and would not fall under this definition, given the extent of expected tax rises due to be announced this week. Sir Keir told the audience in Birmingham: “Trust in my project to return Britain to the service of working people can only be earned through actions, not words.
“Change must be felt. But every decision that we have made, every decision that we will make in the future, will be made with working people in our mind’s eye, people who have been working harder and harder for years just to stand still.
“People doing the right thing, maybe still finding a little bit of money to put away, paying their way, even in the cost-of-living crisis.
“But who feel that this country no longer gives them or all their children a fair chance.
“People stuck on an NHS waiting list, whose town centre is blighted by antisocial behaviour, who can’t afford to buy a place that they can call home, or can’t afford the home they have because of the mortgage bombshell.”