Mayor's £28.6m action plan to cut child poverty

A £28.6MILLION action plan to cut child poverty in the North East has been unveiled.

- DANIEL HOLLAND Local Democracy Reporter

Mayor Kim McGuinness has published a new strategy aimed at improving the lives of the 120,000 babies, children and young people growing up poor across the region.

The document details 36 projects, including three “groundbreaking” pilot schemes to support expectant mothers during pregnancy, provide baby boxes to all first-time families on Universal Credit and offering more low and no-cost activities for young people.

Ms McGuinness said that she wanted to “end the days where our children and region are held back by poverty”.

Funding for the action plan, which runs until 2030, is due to be signed off by the North East Combined Authority’s cabinet next week.

A national child poverty strategy had been due for publication earlier this year but has been delayed, while the Labour Government has come under mounting pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap in order to lift struggling families out of poverty.

Ms McGuinness said: “It’s no secret that the North East can be the best place in the world to grow up, to live and raise a family.

“Yet this isn’t the case for far too many babies, children and young people across our region, whose life chances and outcomes are being limited by financial hardship and all the obstacles this creates.