Andy Burnham has floated a number of policies, ideas and ambitions for his government since becoming prime minister, from shifting power out of Westminster, bringing services under public control and addressing the rising cost of living. But many of his promises are not actually firm commitments, so what has he pledged, how much will it cost and when should the public expect change?
Cutting VAT from household electricity bills
On his second day as prime minister, Burnham promised to scrap VAT on household electricity bills from October. He announced the immediate tax cut to help ease cost-of-living pressures.
The government said the move would reduce the average household’s electricity bill by £45, though the actual saving could depend on how much each household used.
Burnham said it would be funded by ending Keir Starmer’s digital ID scheme, which would have cost the government £1.8bn over three years.
Darren Jones, the former chief secretary to Starmer when he was PM, claimed the money for the digital ID scheme was still unfunded, however, and said Burnham would have to set out how he would pay for his new policies at the budget.
£2 bus fares
Single bus fares across England will be capped at £2 from January, down £1 from the current maximum, which reverses the increase Starmer and the former chancellor Rachel Reeves put in place in 2024.
The cap will last until the end of 2027 and excludes London. It is expected to cost £454m, and ministers have said money has been allocated for devolved governments to make similar moves.
About £400m will come from switching investment in international climate finance to loans, and the rest from savings in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s budget.
Experts have raised concerns that Burnham’s decision to use the aid budget to pay for cheaper bus fares in England will leave the world’s most vulnerable people at risk, especially those facing the most severe impacts of the climate crisis.
End rough sleeping in England by Christmas
Burnham has made tackling homelessness a central policy for his government. Although he did not say he would completely end rough sleeping by Christmas, he said everyone sleeping rough would be offered a route off the streets.
“We’re putting £442m behind a national drive to get everyone in for Christmas,” Burnham wrote in the Guardian, of which £102m will pay for medical care and addiction support, while £340m from existing housing budgets over the next three years will be used to get more people into accommodation and settled housing.
The prime minister said he had not set a target for how much rough sleeping would fall, but instead said real progress must have been made by Christmas, because officials acknowledge they are not able to force people into accommodation they don’t want.
Free 24-hour bus travel for disabled people
Disabled people in England will be able to use their bus passes at any time of the day, seven days a week, from April 2027. Burnham changed the entitlement from its current form – between 9.30am to 11pm on weekdays – so that disabled peoplewon’t lose out on free travel if they need to leave earlier for work or appointments.
The government committed £60m to pay for the change, and has delayed the implementation of the policy until next spring so local authorities have time to change their current arrangements and the government has time to amend legislation.
West Midlands bus network under public control
Burnham has backed moves for the West Midlands Combined Authority to bring its bus network under public control, announcing an extra £11.5m over three years of new funding to help it manage the change. The money will pay for legal advice, staff and IT systems as the network changes hands.
Burnham said about 4,800 jobs would be protected, and 750 buses a day would be kept running during the transition. The cost of the deal is still being ironed out, but the government is separately giving the authority more than £2bn over five years for zero-emission buses.
Cutting business rates for pubs and music venues
Burnham has promised a 20% cut in business rates for pubs, social clubs and most live-music venues from April next year. The government said about 32,000 businesses would benefit, with the average pub saving at least £1,100 a year.
The measure is expected to cost aabout £100m a year, and ministers insist they will pay for it by making other businesses such as vape shops pay more in business rates, and cracking down on overseas sellers avoiding VAT on online marketplaces.
