Lucas urges government to acknowledge scale of child poverty

Brighton MP Caroline Lucas has urged the Coalition Government to ‘acknowledge the scale of child poverty in Sussex’ and ‘reverse its draconian austerity programme’.

The Green Party leader has said the crisis of child poverty is being ‘exacerbated’ by the Government’s ‘savage and unnecessary cuts to public services’ and its ‘deeply unfair attack on the welfare provisions’.

Ms Lucas quotes a recent report by the Campaign to End Child Poverty that 50,000 children in Sussex are ‘suffering the dire consequences of poverty and deprivation’.

This figures includes an estimated 16% of all children in her Brighton Pavilion constituency and Ms Lucas believes austerity measures are only going to make the situation worse.

She said: “That as many as 50,000 children in our region – 16% of all children in my constituency of Pavilion alone – are suffering the dire consequences of poverty and deprivation is absolutely unacceptable.

“Damningly, this crisis is exacerbated by the Coalition Government’s savage and unnecessary cuts to public services, and its deeply unfair attack on the welfare provisions that give so many people a helping hand in difficult times.”

Ms Lucas referred to a blog post by Brighton Housing Trust’s Andy Winter, who argued changes to housing benefit entitlement will lead to 5,800 homes become unaffordable in the city to those on housing benefit.

She added: “When I visited the Brighton Unemployed Centre Families Project last week, it was clear that demand amongst local people for its services has massively increased in recent months.

“Without their offer of food, clothing and childcare assistance, many people would have nowhere to turn.

“But with budgets under severe pressure, organisations such as BUCFP can only do so much.

“The Government must now acknowledge the scale of child poverty in Sussex and across the UK, and urgently reverse its draconian austerity programme.”

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Posted by Joseph Lewis on January 11, 2012. Filed under Brighton and Hove News,Brighton Politics,Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry