Andy Burnham has outlined a sweeping cost-of-living agenda, removing VAT from household electricity bills from 1 October and cutting the national bus fare cap in England from £3 to £2 in January, after his pledge to scrap the digital ID scheme and technology department stirred political backlash.
The £850 million cost of the VAT reduction will be funded by cancelling the digital ID programme, a move digital minister Darren Jones said was possible because the scheme had never been funded. Bus fare subsidies will partly come from £400 million redirected from international climate finance. Burnham told his cabinet he wants a [