Brown: £3bn to banish child poverty
FORMER Prime Minister Gordon Brown is calling for a multi-billionpound programme to tackle childhood poverty.
He is urging Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to use a mini-budget later this year to announce a £3 billion drive to tackle the issue.
Mr Brown warned that without help, the number of children living in poverty could increase to a record 4.5 million.
He published a paper setting out potential emergency anti-poverty measures, including bringing back the Sure Start programme, supporting the low waged and unemployed into better-paid jobs and extending the household support fund.
Mr Brown said: “The sprawling nature of the poverty crisis – which has tentacles reaching into health, education, work, community, energy, transport and more – should banish any illusion that this is a challenge that can be safely led from any one department.
“Instead, a cross-government task force will be required, a body staffed with senior people embedded in each relevant ministry who then combine to advance a strategy in a single forum.
“Co-ordination and administrative support in a comprehensive and integrated way at the centre of government would be one natural way to arrange this.
“But it has to have the chairmanship and thus the enthusiastic blessing of the Prime Minister for it to succeed.
“Without this high-level sponsorship and true willingness to take big decisions, so-called task forces can exert disappointingly little force.”
The Children’s Charities Coalition, Action for Children, Barnardo’s, National Children’s Bureau, NSPCC, and The Children’s Society, said: “Gordon Brown is right to call for action to tackle child poverty, which is having an overwhelming impact on children and families up and down the country.”
ONE of the most concerning trends in recent years has been the rise in child poverty. The grim economic situation has seen many families fall on hard times. And it is unfair that children should suffer from such a young age.
The impact of child poverty is far reaching and this growing trend could have a huge impact for decades to come. While public finances are facing a squeeze, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s calls for a multi billion-pound programme to tackle childhood poverty should not go unnoticed.
He makes a convincing argument for dealing with the problem now rather than kicking the can down the road. Mr Brown warned that without help, the number of children living in poverty could increase to a record 4.5 million. And that the sprawling nature of poverty – affecting all aspects of life – means that this isn’t an issue for just one government department to tackle.
The former PM is urging Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to use a mini-budget later this year, if a general election has not already been called by then, to announce a £3bn drive to tackle the issue.
At the very least, the current Chancellor can set the course of direction when it comes to tackling child poverty.
This region knows all too well the impact of poverty on communities. Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA) and Health Equity North have already outlined the unfair outcomes children based in the North of England are facing today.
Every child deserves a fair chance in life. And a failure to tackle child poverty now will further set back communities that are already being left behind.