Julia challenges Ministers over failing child poverty strategy

4.00.00pm GMT Tue 4th Dec 2007

Local MP Julia Goldsworthy has called on the Government to take urgent action to tackle child poverty, after two separate reports this week showed that the Government's Child Poverty Strategy is failing and in urgent need of review.

Just one month after the Department for Children Schools and Families set up its joint Child Poverty Unit to tackle the problem, a report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says that there has been no sustained progress in the last three years, while the Treasury Select Committee has expressed concern that the Government will struggle to meet its pledge to halve child poverty by 2010.

The news came on the same day that Julia Goldsworthy, MP for Falmouth and Camborne received a response to her letter to Ed Balls about high water rates and their impact on child poverty in Cornwall. Replying, Beverly Hughes, the Minister responsible for child poverty issues, said that 'fair charging, including affordability is a policy being considered within the new national water strategy'. Meanwhile, DWP Minister Caroline Flint has referred Ms Goldsworthy's letter to her about the link between water bills and child poverty to DEFRA, for them to consider the issue further.

Cornwall's Liberal Democrat MPs are preparing to join others from the South West to discuss the issue of water bills and child poverty at a meeting with Water Minister, Phil Woolas, on Wednesday afternoon.

Commenting, Falmouth and Camborne MP Julia Goldsworthy said:

"These reports have confirmed what many of us have suspected for a while now; the Government's child poverty strategy has come off the rails and is having virtually no impact on the problem.

"With the announcement that a new joint Child Poverty Unit will be set up, we have yet another initiative for tackling this issue, but good intentions and warm words are not enough. What we need now is real Government action to resolve child poverty, and that means a strong commitment to taking on problems like high water bills, which leave so many low and middle income families facing a daily struggle.