Fuel duty freeze is 10 times the cost of £2 bus fare cap

Keeping the £2 bus fare cap in England would only have cost a tenth of the money the government spent on freezing fuel duty, a leading think tank has said.

- HOWARD MUSTOE

The cap would have cost £300m compared to the £3bn spent on the fuel duty freeze, according to the New Economics Foundation (NEF). The existing cap was due to expire at the end of December while the new £3 cap, covering most bus journeys in England, will run until the end of 2025.

The cap was introduced after the pandemic to ease the cost of living crisis and also to encourage more public transport use. NEF has previously said that freezing fuel duty leads to more driving rather than public transport use, and thus more pollution.

Single bus fares in London with Transport for London will, however, remain at £1.75 and those in Greater Manchester at £2, after Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, said he would keep the cap.