Burnham confirms West Midlands to take public control of local bus network – UK politics live

• 15m ago

  Disabled people in England to get 24-hour free bus travel under government reforms

Disabled bus pass holders in England will be able to travel for free at all hours from April next year, the government has announced.

Currently, disabled bus passes are valid for travel only on weekdays from 9.30am to 11pm unless local authorities fund an extension, as Greater Manchester did earlier this year when Andy Burnham was mayor.

The prime minister, who is announcing the changes as part of his drive to reduce the cost of living, said it was “simply not right that many disabled people cannot travel using their pass during certain times of the day”.

The £60m to fund the move comes from existing budgets – with £40m from the Department for Work and Pensions and £20m from the Department for Transport.

Burnham is visiting a bus station in the West Midlands this morning and is expected to give more details on the policy then. He’s got a pooled interview with broadcasters at 11am, followed by questions by regional media.

Liberal Democrat Tom Gordon, who has been campaigning for the change for almost two years, is among those welcoming the move.

“Disabilities don’t start at 9 o’clock, neither should disabled bus passes and soon enough they won’t. This is a huge win for the disabled community,” the MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough said.

While the announcement has been praised for removing barriers in people’s everyday lives, the prime minister is facing questions about how it will be paid for.

A Conservative party spokesperson said: “This is simply the shuffling around of existing departmental budgets. Andy Burnham needs to come clean about how he is going to fund this growing list of policies.”

Since coming to power in July, Burnham has announced a range of policies aimed at relieving pressure on financially squeezed households and businesses, including cutting business rates for pubs, capping bus fares at £2 and scrapping VAT from electricity bills.

However, the announcements have often been vague and Burnham is under close scrutiny over how his plans will be funded having promised to stick to Labour’s fiscal rules while promising to boost defence spending and raise infrastructure investment.