LGA responds to JRF child poverty report

Responding to a report on child poverty by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said:

“This report highlights the significant pressures and challenges faced by many of the families and children to whom councils provide services.

“As well as facing a £3 billion funding shortfall for children’s services alone by 2025, councils are housing more than 120,000 homeless children in temporary accommodation, increasing at a rate of over 900 extra homeless children a month in recent years.

“This is making it even harder for us to prevent and deal with the wider factors impacting on low income families, as well as being financially unsustainable for councils.

“To tackle the issue, including the worrying growth in in-work poverty, government needs to resource and fully engage with councils to prevent homelessness and support people into jobs to lift themselves out of poverty.

“Welfare reforms also need to be adapted to reduce the risk of homelessness and councils need more powers to build more affordable homes.”