“Young people deserve a break”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will today outline his plans for free bus travel for under-25s across the United Kingdom should he come into power.
The proposal centres around a commitment to helping teenagers and young adults work, study and visit friends. Corbyn will explain on his visit to a sixth form in Derby later today that “Young people deserve a break. Nearly eight years of Tory austerity have hit their incomes, their chance to buy a house and their career opportunities.”
He will begin his talk by outlining that “Labour wants to help young people make the most out of life by investing in them, which is why today we are pledging the next Labour government will provide the funds to cover free bus travel for under 25s, to support them to travel to work, to study and to visit friends.”
He will add that “Young people also tend to be in lower paid, more insecure work, and they spend a higher proportion of their income on travel. Giving them free bus travel will make a huge difference to their lives”.
According to Labour providing government funding to councils for bus travel could help 13 million young people save up to £1000 a year.
For the plans to be successful it requires local governments to opt into the scheme by introducing bus franchising (similar to the system in London) or move to public ownership of the local bus services. The hope is that this will achieve bus companies that are run for the passengers and not profit as fares have risen by 3% per year since 2012 and show no signs of slowing down. Unlike, you know, actual buses.
The party have said that the policy will be funded by money ring-fenced from Vehicle Excise Duty and could achieve annual savings of up to £276 million per year.
