Call for ‘game changer’ to end child poverty
CALLS for a ‘gamechanger’ policy in Oldham have been made after the borough was found to have some of the worst child poverty rates in the
country – including parts of Royton and Shaw.
Council leader Jean Stretton was quizzed after research found the town had the seventhworst deprivation rates among youngsters in the UK.
More than 40 per cent of children were thought to be living below the breadline in Oldham last year.
Coldhurst ward was found to have the highest levels of deprivation in the country – at more than 62pc, according to research by the End Child Poverty coalition.
Lib Dem opposition group leader Howard Sykes, a Shaw councillor, said the figures showed the issue should be a top priority for the council – and that bosses had to ensure another generation is not ‘condemned’ to poverty.
Highlighting rates of poverty in Coldhurst, he added: “Sadly you also find pockets of economic deprivation in Shaw, Saddleworth, Chadderton and Royton – all are a criminal indictment of the indifference of policymakers and financiers in what we are, a very affluent 21st century Britain,” Coun Sykes added.
He told councillors that much of the blame could be levelled at the government and austerity measures.
Coun Sykes said millions had been invested into deprived neighbourhoods in Oldham under former administrations, but ‘very little seems to have changed on the ground’.
Coun Sykes added: “This administration talks a lot about the ‘game-changer’ that the redevelopment of our town centre will represent, but for the children of these neighbourhoods who are hungry or illshod, a real ‘gamechanger’ would be having enough food to eat and decent shoes and clothes now.”
Coun Stretton said it was ‘not new’ that the borough is a ‘low-wage, low-skill economy’ with ‘significant pockets’ of deprivation.
She said: “I agree with Coun Sykes that much of the blame for this must be laid at the door of the Conservative government.
“I think we should ban the term austerity from this chamber because it is a benign term for the vicious attacks that are to wear right being visited on local government, and by so doing, the people that we serve.
“Much as we would love to put in place a range of initiatives to improve the lives of all our of our citizens, our ability to do that is constantly being attacked.
“Those people don’t understand what it’s like to be in a place like this, and what it’s like to try and deliver services for people who find themselves in those circumstances.”