Call to raise ‘realistic aspirations’ of young people in Dundee

Child poverty in Dundee is nothing new. Just ask Lochee Labour councillor Michael Marra. When his family first arrived in Dundee from Ireland, around 150 years ago, the conditions they found themselves in while working in the city’s jute mills were “horrific”.

But while the rise of social safety nets, including the welfare state, at least helped raise the standard of education and social mobility for working people in the middle of the 20th Century, Mr Marra, who sits on the Dundee Fighting Fairness Commission, says the evidence suggests this progress is now going into reverse and the growing number of children growing up in poverty is just one of the results.

“There’s no doubt that child poverty is Dundee’s greatest shame,” said Mr Marra, who was formerly head of policy for Oxfam Scotland, adding that child poverty is “fundamentally linked to decisions that governments make”, including “bonkers” decisions at Westminster that have seen budgets cut for “purely ideological reasons”.

He points to “huge levels of economic inactivity” in Dundee and says there’s a longer-term question about manufacturing.

“We have to raise the possibility of realistic aspirations for young people,” he said.

However, Mr Marra says that the V&A, Tay Cities Deal and potential decommissioning of rigs on the Tay should all be welcomed.

There’s no doubt that child poverty is Dundee’s greatest shame