The prime minister is right to think that taking Manchester’s model national could widen opportunity, clean the air and rebuild state capacity. Other public services could be next
Barely a month into his premiership, Andy Burnham is already taking the lessons of Manchester’s buses national. This week his government backed the West Midlands mayor Richard Parker’s move to bring the region’s main bus operation into public control. In July, he announced that he would reinstate a £2 national bus fare cap from January 2027. He’s also expanding free bus travel for disabled people to all hours. Transport affordability is clearly part of Mr Burnham’s cost of living programme. That is to be applauded, as is the emphasis on public transport, which – importantly for Labour – reduces social exclusion, boosts local economies, and is better for the environment. Yet buses may matter to Mr Burnham for another reason: they offer a blueprint for how he wants to govern.
This is because Mr Burnham seems to have a worked-out model. He told the Times this week that the prescription for services such as water, housing and energy isn’t yet clear, “with the exception of buses”. Public control, Mr Burnham reasons, gives government the power to make provision cheaper and more reliable – and to shape it around the public interest. For buses, that means the government determining the shape of the network even where private companies run the services. Municipal ownership this is not.
