Council chiefs in Newcastle have promised action to combat “shameful” child poverty rates in the city.
The North East was recently named as England’s new deprivation capital, overtaking London, with 38% of youngsters growing up below the poverty line in the region and 42% in Newcastle. Leaders have now promised a new anti-poverty strategy for the city in a bid to reduce the scale of child poverty on Tyneside, described by a top councillor as “truly outrageous”.
Sylvia Copley, Newcastle City Council’s cabinet member for children, called last week for a united front across the city to take “every possible action to end the impact of poverty on all children”. However, Labour councillors voted down a Lib Dem proposal to set up a commission tasked with cutting the cost of sending children to school.
