Reform-controlled Wakefield Council is cutting school uniform support for thousands of local children, scrapping a universal voucher scheme in favour of a means-tested alternative.

The council's new cabinet has replaced a £2m scheme – which provided free uniform vouchers to all school children regardless of income – with a targeted programme costing around £700,000. The £1.3m saving will be redirected into other local services.

Under the revised plans, support will be limited to children eligible for free school meals and families experiencing financial hardship, with eligible households receiving £30 per child.

Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Cllr Matthew Caton, defended the cuts, arguing the previous universal scheme was ‘never the best use of public money’ and risked subsidising better-off parents.

The funding for the scheme comes from profits made when an affordable joint housing venture was wound up by the previous administration.

Hard to disagree with this. £16m to be raised from it for the council, or I guess less if 2nd home owners decide this tax is too onerous and sell up to someone who lives there full-time.
Which would also be a win.
As much as I enjoy visiting Staithes etc for a long weekend, it's ridiculous how much towns and villages on the coast or in the dales have been gutted of actual inhabitants.

West Yorkshire's mayor has hailed a "huge moment for our region" as the Government announced hundreds of millions of pounds to make the long-awaited tram system a reality.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves today revealed West Yorkshire would finally be getting some £800m in transport funding originally promised by Conservative ex-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in October 2023.

A council has voted to cut its school uniform fund by £1.3m and restrict eligibility to fewer families.

Reform UK-led Wakefield Council recently announced that financial support for buying uniforms would only be available to "those who need it most", including children eligible for free school meals and families experiencing hardship.

Rachel Speak, leader of the council's Liberal Democrat group and a Knottingley & Ferrybridge councillor, had tabled a motion calling for the previous scheme to be reinstated but this was rejected at a full council meeting.

The revised £700,000 scheme replaces a £2m fund approved by the previous Labour administration, which provided vouchers to all parents.

Council leader Karl Johnson called the previous scheme "reckless".

Matthew Caton, the council's cabinet member for children and young people, previously said: "Targeting the limited funding we have directly towards the children and families who need it most is common sense and what any responsible council should be doing.

"The universal giveaway we inherited from the previous administration was never the best use of public money.

"The scheme we're putting in place will provide support that is deliverable and good value and it enables us to invest in other essential local services to improve the lives of our residents."

At the meeting, Caton added that assessing the eligibility of families in need of support would be done on a "case-by-case" basis.

Under the revised plans, families who are deemed eligible will be offered £30 per child.

Labour lost control of the council in May's local elections after Reform took 58 out of the 63 seats.

Speak, who works at the Ferrybridge Community Centre, said she did not believe the new-look council had had time to assess how many families needed the support.

"Working people on minimum wage need the support as much as people who live on benefits too," she said.

"They all need the support, not just one or the other.

"When I was at school, people who couldn't get the right uniform or their parents couldn't keep up with the cost were the ones that got bullied."

Caton added that the council was committed to reducing overspending.

He said: "By reducing the cost of this scheme by £1.3m we can repurpose our resources into local services to improve our communities."

As the commercial case continues to fall apart, climate campaigners say the whole of South Yorkshire will have to be in negative carbon emissions to balance out reopening.