Child Poverty

Baroness Pinnock Excerpts

Thursday 17th November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Pinnock (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Bird, for initiating this very important debate. I agree with him that we need a strategic approach to tackling child poverty. However, I disagree with him on this point. Not everyone is endowed with the characteristics that can get them out of poverty by their own endeavours.

I will describe a local picture of child poverty. Kirklees Council, where I live and where I serve on the council, serves 420,000 people. It produced a report on poverty in the district this year and these are some of the facts included in that report. There are 20,840 children living in poverty in Kirklees—one in five—and almost two-thirds of those live in lone-parent households. Some 24% of all households have an annual income of below £10,000. That describes the scale of poverty in the district where I live.

The impacts on people’s lives are profound and long-lasting. The inequalities in their lives start at birth, when babies whose mothers are poor tend to have a low birth weight, which can lead to preventable physical and mental health disabilities. Poor health for children growing up in poverty is also a feature. They are more likely to be taken to A&E before they are three years old than their peers. They tend to suffer more persistent, frequent and severe health problems throughout childhood. At school, deprivation tends to result in lower levels of attainment at both key stage 2 and key stage 4. The quality of housing that they live in is also often poor. In Kirklees, over one-third of the properties do not meet modern standards and can be damp and difficult to heat. The result is children suffering from respiratory problems. Often, too, their homes are overcrowded, which adds to family stress and restricts the ability of children to do homework. Statistics show that children who grow up in poverty tend to have poor outcomes in life. They tend to die at a younger age, suffer from chronic ill-health, end up as unskilled workers and have long periods of unemployment. Their aspirations are limited.

The question that we should be asking ourselves today is what can be done to break this cycle of deprivation and stunted life chances, so I have a few suggestions. Housing desperately needs to be improved. Our existing housing stock will be where millions continue to live and some will have their lives blighted by its poor quality. Perhaps the Government could consider measures to cut the cost of home improvements for poor-quality housing. Perhaps they could give grants for housing improvement. That would be novel. In Kirklees, when I was council leader, we introduced the warm zone scheme, which offered free loft and cavity wall insulation to every home. It was mainly funded by an energy company. The result was warmer homes and consequent health improvements. Perhaps the Government would consider replicating that scheme.

The cost of childcare is a huge impediment to adults taking low-paid work. Continuing the funding for childcare of two year-olds in poorer families and not diverting it, as some media reports have suggested might happen, to support the more recent universal childcare offer, would demonstrate the Government’s commitment to supporting families out of poverty.

Another action would be to ensure that the pupil premium is spent on improving outcomes for these children. First, libraries should remain open. Too many are closing—21 of the libraries in my own district have closed, have restricted hours or are run by volunteers. They need to remain open and be available for children in overcrowded homes to do their homework, and to widen their learning and aspirations about what is possible. Above all, we need to raise the sights of young people who have had a poor start in life. They can be the first in their family to go to university, but only if the Government provide financial support for them to do so.

There is much that we can do to help children to have a fair start in life and help all reach their potential. There is a financial reason for doing so, because poverty is a cost on the national purse. Above all, there is a moral imperative.