In a move that will delight anyone who has ever had to choose between a bus ticket and a sandwich, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced that single bus fares across England will be capped at £2 starting January. This is a reversal of the £3 cap set by Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves in 2024, which was itself a reversal of the £2 cap that expired in December 2024 - because nothing says leadership like ping-ponging transport policy.

The new cap, which applies everywhere except London (because London does its own thing), is expected to cost over £500 million. Around £400 million will come from converting international climate finance into loans, with the remainder scraped together from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero's budget and some bus money already set aside. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander assured the public that the scheme is "fully funded," which in government terms means "we moved money from one pocket to another."

Burnham, who previously capped fares at £2 as Greater Manchester mayor, declared that "good, affordable transport links are an essential" and that "no one should be priced out." He conveniently forgot to mention that he was the one who raised the cap to £3 in the first place, but hey, who's keeping track?

The bus fare announcement came alongside a VAT cut on electricity bills, which Burnham plans to fund by scrapping the government's digital ID scheme - a scheme that the former cabinet minister Darren Jones says hadn't even been properly costed. But the Trades Union Congress gave a cautious thumbs-up, while Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride accused Burnham of wanting to "go back to the 1970s," which sounds like a threat but might actually be a promise of cheaper living.

To top it off, inflation fell to 2.6% in June, giving Burnham a nice little boost on his third day in office. Because nothing says "new era" like slightly less expensive everything.