Disabled bus pass holders will be able to travel for free at all hours from April next year. Time restrictions are to be lifted on their concessionary bus passes in a bid to ease cost-of-living pressures.

At the moment, disabled bus passes are valid for travel only on weekdays from 9.30am to 11pm unless local authorities fund an extension, as Greater Manchester did earlier this year when Andy Burnham was mayor. The Government is stepping in to remove time restrictions across England starting next year.

The 60 million to fund the move comes from existing budgets with 40 million from the Department for Work and Pensions and 20 million from the Department for Transport. Since becoming Prime Minister, Mr Burnham has announced several moves aimed at tackling the rising cost of living including cutting business rates for pubs, capping bus fares at 2 and axing VAT from electricity bills.

Mr Burnham said: Buses are a lifeline for so many people making it easier to get to work, education and healthcare. Its simply not right that many disabled people cannot travel using their pass during certain times of the day. So were fixing that. Disabled people will now have unlimited free bus travel 24/7.

I did it before in Greater Manchester and Im proud to do it now for the whole country. This is part of our ongoing action to bring back hope and give people some much-needed breathing space on the cost of living.

Liberal Democrat Tom Gordon, who has been campaigning for the change for almost two years, welcomed the move. Disabilities dont start at 9 oclock, neither should disabled bus passes and soon enough they wont. This is a huge win for the disabled community, the MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough said.

He had been looking to force a second Commons vote seeking to remove the time restrictions this September, after MPs rejected his first attempt last year. A Conservative Party spokesman said: This is simply the shuffling around of existing departmental budgets.

Andy Burnham needs to come clean about how he is going to fund this growing list of policies.