Revealed: North East sees biggest group of children pulled into poverty of any region or nation in the UK says IPPR North research

The leading think-tank for the North of England has today published research which shows that, despite seeing the biggest fall in child poverty of any UK region or nation between 1999 and 2013, the North East has seen the biggest rise in child poverty since then- a worrying three times the UK average.

Child poverty rose between 2013 and 2019 by 9 percentage points in the North East, compared to 3 percentage points across the UK. This follows a fall in child poverty between 1999 and 2013 of 13 percentage points in the North East (the biggest fall of any region or nation), and 6 percentage points across the UK.

In response, the Bishop of Newcastle, the Rt Revd Christine Hardman, has intervened to say that as a society we must put “the interests and needs of our children and young people first” amid calls for child poverty in the North East to be made a priority for local and national leaders.

As the UK faces an economic crisis, the IPPR North report warns that children in the North and the North East are already at a disadvantage, because communities across the region continue to bear the scars of Westminster’s austerity and the UK’s deep regional divides.

But researchers at the think-tank say that poverty isn’t inevitable and that it can be solved. They explain that lifting children out of poverty in the North East would “lay the foundations for long term resilience and recovery”.

Today, experts from across the North East including the Bishop of Newcastle, IPPR North, the North East Child Poverty Commission and others have joined together to call on leaders- local and national- to make ending child poverty their priority. This should mean including a ‘commitment to building inclusive regional economies’ into devolution deals, and Combined Authorities creating and prioritising ‘Child and Family Poverty Programmes’.

Report author and Senior Research Fellow at IPPR North Anna Round said:

“No child should ever have to grow up living in poverty, because it is a problem that can be solved. Yet here in the North East, despite progress during the 2000s, we’ve seen the biggest increase in child poverty of all of the regions and nations of the UK in recent years.

“Growing up in poverty has significant, grave consequences for the health and wellbeing of communities. So if we reduce it, we will lay the foundations for long term resilience and recovery, and see improvements in the lifecourse across the region”.

Sarah Longlands, Director of IPPR North said:

“Today we’re joining with people across the North East to speak up for those children without a voice that need to be prioritised: let’s learn from Scotland’s ambitious plans to end child poverty and make it a priority for devolution in the North East too.

“If this government is to give its ‘levelling up’ soundbite any meaning, then it must make ending child poverty in places like the North East its priority. Government should begin by setting out in the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review how they will double down on levelling up life chances for children across the North. This needs to include putting ending child poverty at the heart of future devolution deals”.

The Bishop of Newcastle, the Rt Revd Christine Hardman said:

“All poverty is a terrible thing. Human lives are diminished by it. And child poverty is the most pernicious thing of all, as all too often its effects last a lifetime.

“This report is an urgent call to action. If we wish to avoid being condemned by our actions or inaction in this our time, as a society we have to commit to putting the interests and needs of our children and young people first.

“I warmly welcome this report and pledge to do all I can to see that its recommendations do not stay as a list of good intentions on a page, but rather shape and focus our actions, at the personal, regional and national level.”

Jane Streather, Chair of the North East Child Poverty Commission, said:

“If we are serious about putting children and young people in the North East at the heart of the post-Covid recovery, working together as effectively as possible at all levels of government to prevent, mitigate and reduce child poverty is without question the best place to start. This new report reiterates the urgency of that task, but also rightly highlights that child poverty is not unsolvable if it is prioritised for action”.

ENDS