Councillors back free bus passes for homeless children as pressure mounts on Burnham

Andy Burnham is under pressure from Manchester’s Labour-run council to implement a Manchester Evening News campaign.

Councillors unanimously voted on Wednesday, January 28, to call on the mayor to ‘support the Manchester Evening News campaign and the provision of free or fully funded school travel for children placed in temporary accommodation where that placement is more than a 30-minute walk from their original school’.

The motion now requires council leader Bev Craig ‘writes to Andy Burnham, to restate Manchester council’s support for this ongoing work and its willingness to contribute constructively to the development of any scheme’.

The Manchester Evening News and Roch Valley Radio started calling on the mayor to give homeless children a free bus pass if they’re in temporary accommodation more than 30 minutes’ walk from school last August. 

Government rules say children can only claim free school travel if they live more than two miles from class, and no ‘suitable school’ is nearer, but it’s almost-impossible to be further than two miles from a school in the city. 

Most homeless families therefore have to choose between paying for buses or moving their school. The Manchester Evening News and Roch Valley Radio believes this is a choice no family should make. 

Manchester town hall’s support piles pressure on Andy Burnham after eight Greater Manchester MPs and several high-profile charities also called for the reform.

The motion was introduced by the Green Party leader Coun Astrid Johnson, who said:

While there are schools making commitments, it’s not sustainable. Families consistently tell us they deeply feel the loss of support networks when they are moved away from their area.

A co-ordinated Greater Manchester approach will also reduce pressure on individual councils’ budgets so resources can be directed strategically to alleviate children in poverty.

It was supported by the dominant Labour group, with co-deputy leader Coun Garry Bridges pledging to ‘work with officers to write to every school in the city’ to remind them bus passes for homeless children living more than two miles from class are ‘there and available’.

Coun Joanna Midgley added more work is ongoing to reduce homelessness and keep those who need temporary accommodation closer to home:

“I want to thank the M.E.N. for choosing this as a campaign. Being placed in temporary accommodation is one of the most traumatic things you can be involved in, this campaign has shined a light on that.

We are focusing on the root causes, like domestic abuse. We have invested £250,000 schemes to keep people at risk of abuse safe in their home.

We want to stop families being uprooted and moved. Our focus is on increasing temporary accommodation.

The Liberal Democrats also backed the move. Coun Richard Kilpatrick said:

One thing we can do is create consistency for children. That’s school. 

It’s more than a place for learning. It’s a support place for them. 

Hopefully this will tell local authorities across Greater Manchester to take this issue as seriously as this council is.

All eyes now turn to Andy Burnham’s next budget, unveiled in February, when the mayor said he could introduce it. Previously, December 3, 2025, the ‘sympathetic’ mayor said:

What might open the door is we are moving to a more interventionist space as a combined authority when we signed off using 400 empty properties to reduce the bill in temporary accommodation. 

As part of the support packages there’s an opportunity to link the two. I cannot say more than that because we are in discussions over the budget which come to a head in January… we have a lot of things to consider.

You can sign the petition here; https://www.change.org/p/give-free-school-travel-to-children-who-have-to-move-away-to-temporary-accommodation