information for practice

It is hard to believe that in 21st century Britain, four out of 10 children are living in poverty in one of the richest cities in the world. And yet in London it is not just that child poverty rates are higher than elsewhere in the country, families are more likely to be deeper in poverty, more likely to be without a job, to have fewer choices about their housing and to face multiple disadvantages. The government has boldly pledged to abolish child poverty in a generation, setting a target of halving it by 2010/11. The other political parties too have pledged to address child poverty. Indeed, there has been progress nationally: 600,000 children taken out of poverty, a fall in severe deprivation and a rise in the number of lone parents in work. But more recently progress has stalled nationally and in London it has come to a halt with no significant improvement since 2000.