{"id":212053,"date":"2025-06-25T03:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T03:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/212053\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T03:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T03:04:12","slug":"england-and-wales-must-set-legal-targets-to-end-child-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/212053\/","title":{"rendered":"England and Wales must set legal targets to end child poverty"},"content":{"rendered":"

As laid out in the new \u2018Poverty Zero\u2019 policy report<\/a>, which is being launched today (25 June) at an event in the House of Commons, Big Issue is encouraging Westminster to adopt a similar approach and establish mandatory, time-bound targets in legislation for England and Wales.<\/p>\n

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The report argues that a cyclical target-setting method would translate Labour\u2019s stated ambition of \u201cenduring poverty reduction\u201d<\/a> into concrete, measurable steps. The need to meet these targets would move governments beyond annual budget cycles and counteract the inherent tendency towards policy short-termism.<\/p>\n

Big Issue proposes a judicial review system that would serve as a vital backstop mechanism to hold governments accountable to the targets.<\/p>\n

However, in a difference to Scotland\u2019s rigid 2030 child poverty target<\/a>s, the report proposes giving Westminster governments flexibility to determine their own targets to retain the sitting government\u2019s democratic accountability and political will vital to success.<\/p>\n

Lord Bird, Big Issue founder and crossbench peer, said:\u00a0\u201cWith child poverty in England and Wales predicted to rise to new pernicious highs, we cannot accept rhetoric in place of real change \u2013 we must demand sustained, legislative action.<\/p>\n

\u201cParliamentarians possess the authority to drive this transformation. Let us not look back and regret another missed opportunity.\u202fThe time has come to stop simply managing poverty and to begin ending it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lord Bird has recently moved an amendment to the Children\u2019s Wellbeing and Schools Bill<\/a>, proposing adding statutory child poverty reduction targets to the legislation. With the Lords\u2019 committee stage now nearing completion, he intends to reintroduce the amendment at the bill\u2019s report stage, with the backing of a number of crossbench and Labour peers.<\/p>\n

Promises are easy to break. Sign\u00a0Big Issue\u2019s petition for a Poverty Zero law<\/a>\u00a0and help us make tackling poverty a legal requirement, not just a policy priority.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0Big Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income.\u00a0To support our work buy a copy of the magazine<\/a>\u00a0or get the app from the\u00a0App Store<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Google Play<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As laid out in the new \u2018Poverty Zero\u2019 policy report, which is being launched today (25 June) at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,393,4884,13975,46340,12,285,18266,84492,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-212053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-health-and-wellbeing","12":"tag-john-bird","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-poverty","16":"tag-poverty-zero","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114741794776603803","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}