As members of Friends of the Earth, we welcome moves by government to make greener transport more accessible and attractive to citizens. The recent announcement by Andy Burnham that bus fares will be capped at £2 per journey from January looked, at first glance, like unequivocally good news in this respect.
Many of us, however, felt quite differently about the announcement when we discovered how the government plans to pay for it: by turning the UK’s international aid grants into loans. The effect of this will be that people in many countries in the Global South will be made worse off to pay for something that looks more like a cynical sound bite than a sensible and sustainable policy.
It is unacceptable that a plan for cheaper UK buses pits desperate people in other countries against cash-strapped commuters here. It suggests that we can’t fix the local cost of living crisis, fund greener transport and meet our global aid commitments without somebody losing out.
We think our new PM can do better than that. What do you think?
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