North East mayor unveils multi-million pound package that aims to reduce child poverty
by Owen Younger · ChronicleLiveMajor investments to get people back into work and provide low-cost transport for young people will be among the first measures unveiled as part of a package to reduce child poverty in the North East.
North East mayor Kim McGuinness will announce the measures at the region’s first child poverty summit, including a £50m package to help 13,500 people with health issues or disabilities to find and stay in work. There will also be free after school clubs, baby boxes given to parents at their child’s birth and an extension of the £1 fare for young people aged 21 and under on public transport into 2025. Ms McGuinness says she wants to do “everything possible” to keep the affordable fare in place until 2028.
The mayor will be speaking at the region’s first summit on child poverty being held in Sunderland today which is expected to be attended by more than 300 delegates from the business community, the voluntary sector and public organisations. Ms McGuinness has previously said that reducing child poverty is the main issue on which her mayoralty should be judged.
The summit comes as Labour both nationally and locally is being pressed to do more on the issue.
Ms McGuinness said: “Today marks a major step forward in our fight against child poverty and making the North East the home of real opportunity. For too long, our destiny – and those of families in our region – has been set by Westminster and Whitehall making decisions on our behalf, and the abject failure of markets to bring opportunity, jobs and investment we know people need.
“The North East has had the unwelcome tag of the highest child poverty rates for the past 25 years. Now we say: enough is enough. We’re making progress to help families and young people in the here and now, and putting in the foundations to help the next generation of families - the infrastructure of opportunity.
“Our measures will help people find work, cut the cost of travel and ensure children have the very best start in life.”
Figures released earlier this year by the End Child Poverty Coalition showed that more than 118,000 children are living in poverty in Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and County Durham, many of them in working households. The highest rate of poverty was seen in Newcastle, where more than a third (33.8%) of children are growing up poor, but the rate was above 25% in almost all parts of the region.
The incoming Labour Government has been criticised for not scrapping the previous administration’s two-child benefit cap, widely seen as the single measure that could reduce child poverty. It has set up a child poverty task force, co-chaired by Sunderland MP and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, which will publish a strategy on the issue early next year.
Though most measures that could reduce child poverty remain at national Government level, Ms McGuinness announced in September the establishment of a Child Poverty Reduction Unit which aims to bring together experts from the private, public and voluntary sectors.
Coun Tracey Dixon, leader of South Tyneside Council and cabinet member for education, inclusion and skills at the North East Combined Authority, said: “There are staggering levels of child poverty within our region, and it is impossible not to feel emotional when you hear the conditions that many of our families are living in. While there is a huge amount of work going on to alleviate poverty across the North East, instead of dealing with the effects of poverty, we need to stop people being in poverty in the first place.
“The measures outlined by Mayor McGuinness today are just the start, most of the levers to action real change are still in the control of central Government and we will continue to fight for our region.”
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