Child poverty strategy 'cannot come soon enough'

CAMPAIGNERS say that a Government strategy to reduce child poverty “cannot come soon enough” but will need to include a reversal of a number of controversial positions taken by Labour.

- By GRAEME WHITFIELD Business and Agenda Editor

The North East Child Poverty Commission, which has been successful in recent years in raising the issue within the region, has made a formal submission to the Government as Ministers look to draw up a national strategy to reduce the number of UK children growing up poor.

The North East has been hardest hit by rises in child poverty over the last decade, with latest figures showing that around one in three children - 170,000 - in the region are in poverty.

The Commission said that poverty is causing “immeasurable human costs for individual children and young people” and is putting “unsustainable pressure on our region's public services, on our voluntary and community sector, and on local economies.”