Workers on the minimum wage will get a 20% discount on rush-hour bus, train, and tram fares, if Greater Manchester votes ‘yes’ to congestion charging in December.

And as a huge concession to the transport industry, lorries will be charged nothing for the first year while the effects of the scheme are studied by town hall officials, together with the Road Haulage Association. There will, however, be no exemption or discount for ‘public service vehicles’ to encourage councils to schedule their runs to avoid the rush-hour and set an example.

Those who drive to and from work and earn the minimum wage of £5.73 an hour will also get a 20% discount on the congestion charge, after demands for concessions for the low-paid during the public consultation over the last few months. The discounts would last for at least two years, when the effect would be reviewed.

The cost to drivers who cross the inner and outer charging rings several times in the same day is also to come down dramatically from the original proposals. Council leaders – who are meeting on Friday to approve final arrangements for the referendum – will be asked to scrap a plan to limit the maximum daily charge to £10.

Instead, officials now want to charge them only for crossing each boundary once in each period – £5 a day at the most, at today’s prices. The leaders are to be asked at a meeting of the Association of Greater Manchester Councils (AGMA) to approve a host of changes to their early plans, as a result of the three months of consultation which ended this month.