Free buses nationwide could be paid for by effective taxes on wealth.

The government could make all bus journeys in the UK free, at a cost of about £5.6 billion per year, a new report by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) shows.

That £5.6 billion is less than one-eighth of the £50 billion that tax justice campaigners say could be raised each year by taxing wealth more effectively.

The NEF report, Getting Moving on the Cost of Living, shows that bus and rail fares have risen faster than the rate of inflation over the last 25 years, and “a high, and growing, level of car dependency has resulted”.

That leaves households “exposed to the high costs of car ownership, particularly when fuel prices spike”. And so transport is the largest expense, excluding mortgage payments, for rural households, and the second largest for urban households.

“Universal public transport provision can be one of the most foundational and transformative approaches to addressing inequality”, authors Paula Castro Rodriguez and Alex Chapman argue. It is “also key to a fast green transition”.

The report’s authors looked at three policy options aimed at cutting the cost of bus travel: free bus travel for all, a £1 fare cap, and free bus travel for under-25s. They also checked on the cost of a £1 fare cap plus free travel for under-25s.

They argue that a big expansion of bus services would be needed, reversing the drastic cuts of the last few decades.

Their projections assumed that abolishing fares would produce 884 million new journeys in the first year, and more than double that in the long term; that more than 15,000 new buses would be put on the road; and that bus users of all ages would save £110 per year on average; young people’s savings would be greater, at least £150 per year.

Such a scheme would cost the government an estimated £4.3 billion in the first year and £5.6 billion per year after that, the report says.

Among those who would benefit most directly from free bus travel are young people, the NEF report says. They are “particularly exposed to the transport cost of living”, with the high cost of car ownership pushing it out of reach for many.

Young people need mobility to access work and education opportunities. “Schemes in Scotland, and around the world, show that free, or ultra-cheap, public tranpsort can open up opportunities for young people and support them into good work.”

We in Fare Free London believe that, if the government was committed to free public transport, it would find the money somehow.

It is not hard to raise it by taxing wealth, for example – and, given the gigantic leap forward that it would be for social justice and climate action, well worth it.

Think about the £5.6 billion a year that NEF reckons free buses would cost. That is less than one-eighth of the £50 billion per year that the government could raise by “closing unfair loopholes and implementing credible, achievable reforms”, identified in a recent report by Tax Justice UK and Patriotic Millionaires.

“The UK’s unequal tax system is stacked in favour of the super-rich”, the report says. “Unfair loopholes and far lower rates of tax on income from wealth than work mean the wealthiest in our society often pay proportionally lower taxes than the average person”.

The two groups propose a 2% tax on assets over £10 million (to raise up to £24 billion a year); reforms to the Capital Gains Tax to close loopholes (£11.3 billion a year); extending National Insurance to non-dividend investment income and partnership income (£6.1 billion a year); and other measures.

Other tax campaign groups have come up with similar numbers. The Taxing Wealth Report showed how £90 billion could be raised each year from straightforward reforms to the existing tax system, focused only on those who earn money from investment or rents.

Just putting a charge analogous to national insurance on investment income would close a tax avoidance loophole and raise £18 billion, the report’s author Richard Murphy writes.

The research group Positive Money says £12.5 billion could have been raised this year, just by a windfall tax on the four largest banks.

And all the tax justice campaign groups say that money invested in reducing cross-border tax evasion would bring handsome results. The UK loses about £33.5 billion a year that way, the Tax Justice Network reckons.

By Simon Pirani of Fare Free London.

□ On Tuesday 29 September, at 7.0pm, Fare Free London is holding an event on “How to Make Public Transport Free”, at the Golden Lane community centre, London EC1Y 0SA. We will hear from councillor Julie Frêche of the Montpellier metropolitan area in France, where public transport has been free since 2023, and hold our annual meeting. All welcome! See details and register