The single bus fare cap in England will be raised to £3 in the upcoming monetary schedule, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced.

It is an boost on the current limit of £2 which was introduced under the previous Conservative government to assist with the expense of living.

The existing cap was due to expire at the complete of December.

Sir Keir said: “I do recognize how much this matters, particularly in rural communities where there is heavy reliance on buses.”

The recent £3 cap, covering most bus journeys in England, will run until the complete of 2025.

About 3.4 million people in England use buses. There had been investing in recent days that the chancellor would announce in the monetary schedule on Wednesday that the current cap would be scrapped.

This would have meant that some passengers faced a steep hike in fares following two years of assist.

Single bus fares in London with Transport for London will, however, remain at £1.75 and those in Greater Manchester at £2.

They are excluded from the broader fare cap as their financing is structured differently.

The Confederation of Passenger Transport said that raising the cap from £2 has avoided travellers facing a “cliff edge” at the complete of this year.

But it said: “An boost to £3 will still now challenges for many passengers, particularly those who depend on buses as their primary means of affordable trip.”

Joshua Anderton is a second year learner at Lancaster University who relies on buses to get to his lectures.

“I discover the bus fare cap boost an absolutely awful concept,” he said.

“I spend a minimum of £4 a day on bus tickets, sometimes more when I have to commute multiple times in a day.

He added that the prices are “only made worse by the truth that profit tickets have been removed”.

Joshua says he’ll now have less money to spend on food and will avoid some social events.

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Prior to Monday’s announcement invoice Hiron, chair of Eastern Transport Holdings, which runs bus services in Essex, had warned that suddenly ending the £2 cap could factor problems.

Reverting to previous fares of £5 or £7 for example, would represent “such a large jump that not only will it factor hardship for some people but of course it will outcome in some people saying I’m not going to receive the bus anymore,” he told the BBC’s Today Programme.

Meanwhile Greenpeace suggested lifting the cap was a “‘tough selection’ the government didn’t require to make”.

“It makes no political, economical or environmental sense whatsoever,” said Paul Morozzo, Greenpeace’s UK’s elder transport campaigner.

He said buses are a “critical lifeline to millions of people, particularly those on lower incomes”.

“A government that was truly prioritising the needs of the poorest in population would rethink this selection at the first chance,” he said.

Additional reporting by Bernadette McCague