Struggling families need school uniform grants, government told

7 hours ago Share Save Dan Whitworth & Dearbail Jordan Reporting from Winsford, Cheshire Share Save

Getty Images Few councils offer school uniform support, and one of the UK's largest debt advisers has called on the government to change that

Low-income families in England struggling with the cost of school uniform should be offered grants as standard, one of the UK's largest debt advisers has said. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, all families on certain benefits can claim between £93 to £200 per child for back-to-school clothing. But Money Wellness found only a fifth of councils in England offer any support and has called on the UK government to introduce a statutory school clothing grant. The Department for Education (DfE) said it was already changing the law to limit the number of branded items schools can insist on, saving some families over £50 on the back-to-school shop.

However, the average cost of a school uniform is just over £340 for primary school children and around £454 for those in secondary education, according to DfE figures. "For many low-income households, even with such savings, uniforms will remain unaffordable without proper support," said Adam Rolfe, policy and public affairs officer at Money Wellness.

Money Wellness says of 153 local education authorities in England, just 22 offer a dedicated uniform grant, while a further seven provide help but only in exceptional circumstances such as fire, flooding or being made homeless. It said the data reveals a "postcode lottery of support". Councils in places such as London, Yorkshire, and the north west offer help ranging between £30 to £170 per child. But, it said: "The vast majority offer nothing at all." Mr Rolfe said: "We urgently need a consistent, national approach to school uniform support to ensure no child is disadvantaged simply because of where they live." The Local Government Association, the membership group for English councils, said: "While some councils choose to help parents with the cost of school uniforms, funding pressures on council budgets make it increasingly difficult for them to continue these concessionary grants.

While pupils in England are still out for the summer, the break finishes in around four weeks' time and the Children's Society charity said now is the time that school uniform banks are starting to get busier. For Carrie, who was getting a uniform for her son Dillion for his new secondary school, places like the Green Uniform and Baby Bank in Cheshire are "invaluable".

Carrie, here with her son Dillon, said uniform banks are "invaluable"

"It's a real challenge to be able to afford a brand new school uniform," she told the BBC. Carrie said she had ordered £200 worth of new items, and she could "now send some things back" and even buy some spares. "It's a real safety net," she said. But Carrie said there were other costs too such as shoes and football boots. "And Dillon will grow out of them so it is a continual issue really and with Christmas not far off, it is back-to-back for families with costs."

Jason, with Amelia, Julie and Bobby, says councils should standardise help with school uniform costs

With household bills such as energy, water and council tax rising in April, Mr Rolfe said the costs of the start of the school year was an added financial burden. Jason, who was at the Green Uniform and Baby Bank in Cheshire with his wife Julie and their children Amelia and Bobby, said it was not just low income families who were struggling with costs. "You might earn a lot of money however, bills are going up, the cost of living is going up. We're in a sort of crisis where everyone's trying to save or penny-pinching wherever they can," he said. Josh, whose daughter Isabella was going into year seven, said the cost of school uniforms was "very high", but he received an email from the school telling him about the bank.

Josh, with Isabella, says there's no longer a stigma about secondhand clothes

"It just helps places like this to support everyone, keep it a fair price," he said. "It's great for everyone, there's no judgement on using secondhand clothes. There used to be a lot of stigma, it had to be branded but now there's no stigma on that, everyone's in the same boat struggling." And it is a sustainable way to shop, according to Jason: "You're not having uniforms and clothes going to landfill sites".

The Green Uniform and Baby Bank's Michelle Hawthorne says it has never been busier

Michelle Hawthorne, who helps run a school uniform bank in Winsford, Cheshire, said school uniform costs were an "enourmous" pressure for families. "If you have multiple children across multiple schools, as a lot of our families do, you can see how the cost of that can become... unbearable." A Department for Education spokesperson said: "Our Plan for Change is removing barriers to opportunity, with limits on branded items of school uniform just one of the steps we're taking to put money back into parents' pockets and break the link between background and success."

How to save money on school uniform

Oceangate's Titan whistleblower: 'People were sold a lie'

25 minutes ago Share Save Rebecca Morelle Science Editor Alison Francis Senior Science Journalist Share Save

David Lochridge David Lochridge was sacked after raising safety concerns

When the Titan submersible went missing during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic in 2023, David Lochridge hoped the five people on board – including his former boss - could be rescued. "I always hoped that what happened wouldn't happen. But I just knew if they kept carrying on the way they were going and with that deficient equipment, then there would be an incident," he told the BBC. The whistleblower had been sacked by the firm behind the sub, Oceangate, after warning about safety issues in 2018. In June 2023 the sub imploded killing all five people on board – including Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush. A report from the US Coast Guard (USCG) published on Tuesday found that Oceangate's failures over safety, testing and maintenance were the main cause of the disaster. "There is so much that could have been done differently. From the initial design, to the build, to the operations - people were sold a lie," Lochridge told the BBC. But he firmly believes the US authorities could - and should - have done more to stop Oceangate.

PA Media The design and construction of Titan's hull was criticised in the report

Lochridge had joined Oceangate seven years earlier as the company's Director of Marine Operations. He moved his family from Scotland to the US, and was full of excitement about the company's ambitions. Oceangate was building a new submersible to take paying passengers down to the most famous wreck in the world - the Titanic. And he was going to be involved in the project from the very start, working alongside the team designing the sub. The straight-talking Glaswegian has worked at sea for more than 25 years, first with the Royal Navy and later as a submersible pilot. He also led submarine rescue operations, responding to distress calls from people trapped underwater. He knows about the risks involved in deep dives. His responsibilities included planning dives and, as chief pilot, he would be the one taking the sub and its passengers 3,800m beneath the waves to see the Titanic. Safety was at the heart of his role. "As the director of marine operations, I'm the one responsible for everybody," he told BBC News. "I was responsible for the safety of all Oceangate personnel and all of the passengers that were going to be coming in the sub."

Supplied via Reuters / AFP Clockwise from top left: Stockton Rush, Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet were all killed in the accident

A prototype for the new submersible, which would eventually be called Titan, was being developed with the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). The plan was to build its hull - the part where the passengers would sit - out of carbon fibre. No deep diving sub had been made out of this material before - most have hulls constructed from titanium or steel. But Lochridge had confidence in the APL team. He said he was told by Oceangate's CEO Stockton Rush that the craft would undergo a safety assessment by an independent marine organisation, known as certification. Lochridge was adamant that this third-party oversight was essential - especially because Titan was to be made of experimental materials. But by the summer of 2016 he was starting to have doubts about the project. Oceangate stopped working with APL and decided to bring the design and construction of Titan in-house. Lochridge was worried. He didn't have the same confidence in Oceangate's engineers. He told the BBC he didn't think they had experience of building subs able to withstand the immense pressures found at the depth of the Titanic. "At that point, I started asking questions… and I felt I had a duty of care to keep asking them," he said. As the parts for Titan began to arrive, and the craft started to take shape, Lochridge said he was spotting problem after problem. "When the carbon hull came in, it was an absolute mess," he said. He saw visible gaps in the material, areas where the layers of carbon fibre were coming apart - known as delamination. And he identified issues with other key components.

David Lochridge David Lochridge had years of experience at sea

The carbon fibre hull had titanium domes fitted on each end, but he said the metal had been machined incorrectly. He was also worried that the sub's view port had not been designed to work at extreme depths. Most concerning, he learnt that Titan was not going to be independently certified for safety. He told the BBC that he had always been outspoken on safety issues - so he wasn't going to stay silent. "I brought up all the issues that I was seeing… but I was just met with resistance all the way," he said. In January 2018, he outlined his concerns again to Stockton Rush. This time Rush asked him to complete an inspection of the vessel. Titan was at a crucial point of its development. Passengers had already paid deposits for dives to the Titanic planned for later that year. Test dives were about to start in the Bahamas before those expeditions got underway. Lochridge wanted Oceangate to delay these plans. "I formulated a report and I sent it out to all the directors in the company." The following day he was summoned to a meeting with Rush and several other Oceangate employees. A transcript from the two-hour-long meeting, where the itemised report was picked over, reveals a heated exchange between Lochridge and Rush. Towards the end of the meeting, in response to Lochridge's safety concerns, Rush says: "I have no desire to die. I've got a nice granddaughter. I'm going to be around. I understand this kind of risk, and I'm going into it with eyes open, and I think this is one of the safest things I will ever do." To Lochridge's surprise, immediately after this meeting he was fired. But he was so concerned about Titan that he got in touch with the US government's Occupational Safety and Health Administration - OSHA. OSHA told him his case was urgent because it involved public safety and that he would be placed under the whistleblower protection scheme, designed to protect employees from retaliation by employers if they've reported concerns about workplace safety. As part of this process, OSHA passed Lochridge's concerns about Titan to the US Coast Guard (USCG) in February 2018. But Lochridge says after OSHA wrote to Oceangate to tell them it was starting an investigation, everything changed. In March, Oceangate asked Lochridge to drop the OSHA complaint - and demanded he pay $10,000 for legal costs. Lochridge declined. Then in July 2018, Oceangate sued Lochridge - and his wife Carole - for breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, fraud and theft, amongst other allegations. The following month, Lochridge countersued for unfair dismissal. Lochridge maintains that throughout the process OSHA was slow and failed to protect him from the ongoing retaliation he was receiving from Oceangate. "I provided all the documentation to OSHA, I was on the phone to OSHA every few weeks." he said. "OSHA did nothing."

'They beat us down'

In December 2018, under increasing pressure from Oceangate's lawyers, Lochridge and his wife took the decision to drop the case. This meant the legal proceedings were settled, and as part of this agreement Lochridge withdrew his complaint at OSHA. OSHA stopped its investigation and also notified the US Coast guard that the complaint had been suspended. Lochridge also signed a non-disclosure agreement. "Carole and I did everything we physically could, we just got to the point that we were completely burned… We had nothing left to give to it. They beat us down." Oceangate continued at pace with its plans to reach the Titanic. In 2018 and 2019, the prototype sub made its first test dives in the Bahamas - including one, piloted by Stockton Rush, that reached a depth of 3,939m. A crack was later found in the sub's carbon fibre hull, and in 2020 that damaged hull was swapped out for a new one, in what became the second version of Titan.

Reeves must raise tax to cover £41bn gap, says think tank

7 hours ago Share Save Lucy Hooker Business reporter, BBC News Share Save

AFP via Getty Images

Taxes must rise in the autumn if Chancellor Rachel Reeves is to meet her self-imposed borrowing rules, according to an economic think tank. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) said the government was on track to miss the target it has set itself by £41.2bn. It recommended "a moderate but sustained increase in taxes" including reform of the council tax system to make up the shortfall. The government said "the best way to strengthen public finances is by growing the economy", but the Conservatives said Labour "always reaches for the tax rise lever".

When she became chancellor, Reeves set out two rules for government borrowing, which is the difference between public spending and tax income. The first rule was that day-to-day spending would be paid for with government revenue, which is mainly taxes. Borrowing can only be for investment. The second rule was that debt must be falling as a share of national income by the end of a five-year period. Reeves has repeatedly said these rules are "non-negotiable". The chancellor originally promised not to raise taxes further, but recently refused to rule it out after disappointing data on economic growth. Stephen Millard, deputy director for macroeconomics at Niesr, said Reeves "will need to either raise taxes or reduce spending or both in the October Budget if she is to meet her fiscal rules". Niesr argues that raising taxes would help build a "buffer" that would reassure investors about the stability of the UK's public finances. That in turn "may reduce borrowing costs" for the government, it said.

More than 100 missing after flash floods in India

1 hour ago Share Save Nitin Ramola Reporting from Uttarkashi Nikita Yadav BBC News, Delhi Share Save

Uttarakhand Police via Getty Images Heavy rains and flash floods have caused severe damage in Uttarkashi district

Officials say more than 100 people are missing after a cloudburst triggered devastating flash floods in India's northern state of Uttarakhand. Rescue operations are under way in Uttarkashi district after a gigantic wave of water gushed down the mountains into Dharali village on Tuesday, submerging roads and buildings in its path. Some teams of the army have been at Dharali since Tuesday but other disaster response forces and district officials have been unable to reach the area due to damaged roads and heavy rains. Local media reports say that four people have died, but officials told the BBC they have not recovered any bodies so far.

Nitin Ramola Roads leading to Dharali have been badly damaged

Heavy rains have been lashing the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand over the past weeks, and Uttarkashi, where Dharali village is located, has been particularly affected, with flooding reported in many places. Around 130 people have been rescued so far in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami told reporters on Wednesday morning. A cloudburst is an extreme, sudden downpour of rain over a small area in a short period of time, often leading to flash floods. It took place on Tuesday around 13:30 India time (08:00 GMT), causing the Kheerganga river to swell dramatically, sending tonnes of muddy water crashing down the hilly terrain. Dharali, a popular tourist destination in the summer, is located 2km (1.24 miles) from Harsil, which has a huge Indian army base. A camp of the paramilitary Indo-Tibetan Border Police is also located near the area. At least 10 soldiers stationed at the Harsil base are also missing, officials said. Rescue operations are progressing at a slow pace as there is a large amount of sludge and debris covering the area. On Wednesday, heavy and incessant rains continued to lash the region, further complicating rescue efforts. Many routes on the main highway have been closed after they were heavily damaged in the downpour. There are gaping, jagged cracks running down many roads in Uttarkashi district. A few teams of the national and state disaster response forces stationed in Gangotri - about 18km from Dharali - have been at the site since Tuesday afternoon, but officials have been unable to contact them because of poor network connectivity and prolonged power outages.

Reuters Rescue operations have been slow due to bad weather

Chinese nationals charged with exporting Nvidia AI chips to China

The case shows that smuggling its chips "is a nonstarter," an Nvidia spokesperson said.

Court documents seen by the BBC allege the shipments included Nvidia's H100 graphics processing units (GPUs), which have become a key focus of US export controls aimed at stopping China purchasing the cutting-edge technology.

The DOJ alleged that over the last three years ALX Solutions, a company it said was run by Chuan Geng and Shiwei Yang, exported the chips from the US to China without the required licences.

Two Chinese nationals have been arrested and charged with illegally shipping millions of dollars' worth of powerful AI chips to China, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Tuesday.

Nvidia sells products to well-known partners who help to ensure that all sales comply with US export control rules, she added.

"Even relatively small exporters and shipments are subject to thorough review and scrutiny, and any diverted products would have no service, support or updates."

According to court documents, California-based ALX Solutions had three known employees: Mr Geng handled the firm's finances, Ms Yang was its secretary, while its chief executive was not named in the documents.

The DOJ said the three individuals exercised "full decision-making authority and shipment coordination" for the firm.

Mr Geng was a permanent resident of California, and Ms Yang, was an "illegal alien" who had overstayed her visa, a DOJ statement said.

Business records showed the company sent goods several times from the US to shipping firms in Singapore and Malaysia between October 2022 and July 2025, the DOJ said, noting that both countries are used as transit hubs to "conceal illegal shipments" to China.

ALX never received payments from these shipping firms and would instead be paid by other companies based in Hong Kong and China. These included a $1m (£750,000) payment from a China-based firm in January 2024, said the DOJ.

Last December, ALX sent a shipment with export-restricted computing chips - including Nvidia's H100 and GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs - which was checked by US customs, according to court documents.

"Neither ALX Solutions nor Geng or Yang applied for or obtained a license from the Commerce Department," the documents said.

In one 2023 invoice valued at more than $28.4m, ALX allegedly declared to Super Micro Computer, a supplier of Nvidia chips, that the devices were ordered for a Singapore-based customer.

But a US export control officer in Singapore could not verify that the chips arrived in the country and the company named did not exist at the listed location, the court document said.

"It appears that ALX Solutions shipped the Nvidia products to different end users."

Super Micro did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC but said in a statement to the Reuters news agency that it was "firmly committed to compliance with all US export control regulations."

It added that it would not comment on an ongoing legal case but would cooperate with authorities in any such proceedings.

Ms Yang was arrested on Saturday while Mr Geng surrendered himself to the authorities soon after, the DOJ said.

The pair appeared in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday, the DOJ said. If found guilty they could face up to 20 years in prison.

ALX Solutions does not appear to have a website, according to court documents. A website for ALX-Cloud, which specialises in cloud computing services, states that it is a subsidiary of the company.

The BBC was unable to immediately locate lawyers for Mr Geng and Ms Yang but has contacted ALX-Cloud to request a statement.

Additional reporting by Peter Hoskins

Piastri has won six races to Norris' five this season, and they have won 11 of the 14 races so far between them.

Racing resumes at the Dutch Grand Prix on 29-31 August and Brown says he expects their battle to remain fair.

"I've said to both of them individually, at windows of opportunity, has your team-mate ever done anything to annoy you? 'Never'. And that's what they both said," Brown added.

"So there's competitiveness brewing. We're not feeling any tension. As the championship builds I'm sure that tension will grow, but like Montreal - I'm glad we got it out of the way, because it was a non-event, Lando owned it, Oscar understood, it was a mistake."

Brown said that although he expects the two drivers to end up colliding again, he was "very confident it won't be deliberate".

He added: "I'm positive they're never going to run each other off the track, and that's where you get into bad blood."

And he said that McLaren would deal with any tension that evolves in the same way they have managed the relationship between the drivers so far.

"If something bubbles up, we'll deal with it," he said. "And how we operate, which is [in] an open, transparent, deal with it right away [manner].

"It seems like from the outside looking in, when you've seen battles between other team-mates, you've kind of seen it brewing, and you kind of go like 'have they jumped on that, or are they just kind of letting it build up?'

"We'll take the air out of the balloon right away, if we feel like anything's bubbling up, but we've not seen any of it."

Brown said it was vital for McLaren for the two to remain on good terms because they both have long-term contracts.

"They're going to be racing against each other for a long time in the same team," he said, "so it's important that relationship continues to grow, because the relationship's not just about this year, but it bleeds into next year, and they're going to be together for a long time".

When Sheffield Wednesday reached the Championship play-off final in 2016, the clubs' fans believed they were on the verge of a new era of success under Thai owner Dejphon Chansiri.

But in the years since losing that final, Chansiri's reputation and supporters' morale have taken a steady hammering.

Late payments to HMRC, delayed salaries for players and staff members, and transfer embargos have clipped the club's wings.

There were concerns about whether their first match of the season against Leicester on Sunday would go ahead, but it is understood the players will fulfil the fixture.

Now, with a skeleton squad, enforced stand closure and dire financial prospects, fans have told the BBC what they feel Chansiri's failure to sell is doing to the club, the city, and its people.

"We're all struggling," says Hillsborough season ticket-holder Gaz Robinson. "It's been terrible for everybody - mentally exhausting.

"We need the chairman to see sense, to take into account how we feel, how the city is feeling, and make the right decision."

Brian Laudrup's name was not one many would have expected to be evoked when discussing Rangers' wide men in the 3-0 thumping of Viktoria Plzen.

Former Rangers midfielder Derek Ferguson did admit it was ridiculously premature to suggest Djeidi Gassama or Oliver Antman could ever make the sort of impact the iconic Dane did at Ibrox.

But the comparison served to underline the impression the dynamic wingers had made on him and the Rangers fans as they ripped the Czech side to shreds in this Champions League third qualifying round first leg.

Gassama has exploded onto the scene since signing from Sheffield Wednesday.

His two fabulous goals, one in each leg, helped drag Rangers through a treacherous assignment against Panathinaikos and over the first hurdle on the road to the Champions League.

With Antman on the other flank offering similar pace, footwork and eye for goal just one day after joining the club, Rangers looked a team that had found a new gear.

"I can't remember the last time Rangers had two electric wingers on the pitch at the same time," said former Ibrox midfielder Andy Halliday on Sportscene. "For such a long period of time, it's been such a problem for Rangers."

MasterChef returns after Wallace and Torode sacked

25 minutes ago Share Save Noor Nanji • @NoorNanji Culture reporter Share Save

BBC/Shine TV John Torode, left, and Gregg Wallace have presented MasterChef since 2005

MasterChef has returned to TV screens with both of its sacked co-hosts, Gregg Wallace and John Torode, in it. The pair were both sacked last month after a report into conduct on the cooking show upheld allegations against them. The BBC decided to still show this year’s amateurs series - filmed last year - saying it was “the right thing to do” for the chefs who had taken part. But it faced a backlash from some groups, including the broadcast union Bectu which said bad behaviour "should not be rewarded with prime-time coverage". Both presenters appear within the first minute of the new series but there are fewer jokes than usual, and less chat between them and the chefs.

One of the chefs has also been edited out after asking for the new series not to be broadcast following claims against the two hosts.

The first three episodes of the new series were released on iPlayer on Wednesday morning, with the show starting on BBC One later at 20:00 BST. In previous years, Wallace and Torode have been a near-constant presence throughout the episodes. And in the first episode of the new series, both presenters appear from the outset and throughout. They welcome the new contestants, introduce the challenges, interview the chefs while they cook, announce when "time's up", and taste the dishes. But there are fewer jokes, with the usual banter between the presenters and the chefs appearing to have been reduced. It is thought there would have been limitations on how much Wallace and Torode could be edited out, but that the focus would be placed on the contestants. Six chefs feature in the first episode, with the next episodes set to introduce a new set of contestants. This year's series is starting much later than usual, in August, compared with the last few years which began in April, which could have an impact on viewing figures. The series runs for three days a week until the finals.

‘Not an easy decision’

Any NFL players who have come through the North American education system have grown up with American football and had years to grasp the intricacies and nuances of the sport.

Osi Umenyiora and Efe Obada are two of those who have been born overseas and proved it is possible to pick up the game late and still succeed, but you must be able to understand a playbook.

Christian Scotland-Williamson played rugby union either side of a two-year stint on the Pittsburgh Steelers' practice squad and has since become a barrister.

During a video call with BBC Sport, the 32-year-old held up two law books - each more than an inch thick - and said: "Learning both of these was easier than learning an NFL playbook, which is absolutely absurd.

"Doing all that [legal training], I still wasn't working as hard as I had to when I went to the NFL. It recalibrates what you think is hard."

Speaking to the BBC after beginning his NFL journey in 2018, Christian Wade held his hands several inches apart and said "the playbook's like this".

"It is quite intimidating but there's a method to it," he added. "You have to learn the terminology and how to dissect it so that you can retain the information, then in a few hours put that into practice. Then do the same in the afternoon and the next day."

Before Rees-Zammit called time on his NFL adventure, he would have been learning his third playbook in 18 months having spent the 2024 off-season with the Kansas City Chiefs and the 2024 season with the Jacksonville Jaguars, who then appointed a new head coach in January.