A proposed plan to trial free bus passes for under-22s in England will not go ahead as it is “unaffordable” at the moment, the government has said.
The trial was one of a number of recommendations put forward by the Transport Committee, a cross-party group of backbench MPs, in a report this August – with the suggestion it would boost access to jobs and education.
In its response, published on Friday, the government said no money was available for such a scheme during the current spending review period, which runs until 2028/2029.
Responding to the government’s decision, committee chair Ruth Cadbury accused the Department for Transport of “lacking in ambition”.
“Throughout our inquiry we heard about the consequences of poor connectivity,” Labour MP Cadbury said.
“Young people unable to get their first jobs or taking exhausting journeys to reach school or college. Older and disabled people feeling isolated and depressed, and high streets starved of customers.”
“It is hard to shake the feeling that an opportunity may be missed, particularly to improve services in rural and underserved communities.”
Since January 2022, everyone in Scotland aged between five and 22 has been entitled to free bus travel.
Gracie Moore is 22 and lives in Slough. She spends £120 a month to get the bus to and from work every day.
Gracie said the government’s decision was “disappointing”.
“It would have been so beneficial, considering that under 22s are so negatively impacted by inflation,” she said.
“Things like buying our first house or affording bills are already difficult, so this would have taken the pressure off for us.”
Gracie previously lived in Madrid, where she enjoyed unlimited travel on bus, train, tube, and tram for only €8 (£6.90) a month with a young person’s travel card.
England, she said, “seem[s] to be one of the only countries who cannot effectively subsidise travel costs”.
The announcement of the government’s plans on under-22 bus travel in England comes in the week when the Bus Services Act has become law.
Welcomed by the committee, it will place tougher requirements on operators that wish to cancel certain services and give local authorities more control, including through franchising.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the new law would make it “easier for local leaders to take control of their buses” and was “putting passengers first”.
Cadbury said while the new law is “positive and necessary” it cannot be “the last word”.
Of the other recommendations put forward by the committee, some were received positively.
These included a suggestion that funding should be laid out over a longer period, and should be weighted to take account of rural needs.
However, along with free travel for under-22s, other points of action were rejected – including a call for minimum service levels for buses.
The government argued that “significant differences in demographics, need and geography” would make minimum levels of service “very challenging to implement at a national level, whilst also ensuring value for money”.
The number of bus journeys taken in England has dropped in recent years, while fares have risen faster than inflation.
The committee found that this was a barrier to opportunity and growth in some areas.
Bus passengers spend £39.1bn in local businesses every year, according to research from KPMG.
But experts told the Transport Committee that the bus sector’s contribution to the economy declined by around £8.9bn between 2011 and 2023.
The committee’s report said: “The current deregulated nature of the bus sector can encourage commercial operators to “deprioritise” less profitable routes, often leaving vulnerable communities without a service.”
