A £4.2bn devolution deal for the North East will give local leaders “more power” to reverse staggering levels of child poverty, according to Michael Gove.
The region has become the child poverty capital of England, with more than a third of youngsters growing up below the poverty line and rates at their worst for more than two decades. A harrowing new report from the Child of the North All Party Parliamentary Group revealed this week that child poverty is now the highest it has been since 2000/2001 in the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, while an extra 160,000 children were living in deprivation in the North during the Covid pandemic compared to the rest of England.
As Mr Gove visited Tyneside on Friday to sign the historic devolution deal, he said the extra powers and funding to be delivered to a new regional mayor would help combat the child poverty crisis. Asked if the Conservative Government accepted responsibility for the climbing poverty rates in the North East over recent years, the levelling up secretary told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We take responsibility for dealing with the significant challenge that child poverty presents us.
