At today’s meeting of the Treasury Select Committee, Kerry took the opportunity to quiz Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Stephen Timms MP, about what the Government was doing to ensure it meets its target of halving child poverty by 2010 and abolishing it within a generation.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has estimated it will cost an additional 4.3bn to meet the Government’s 2010 target – but the Minister said that some progress could be made without additional spending, for example by getting more parents into work. He confirmed that there will be cross-departmental Delivery Agreements in place to ensure that key Government priorities can be delivered, and that tackling child poverty was a good example of an issue where a Delivery Agreement would be helpful.
Kerry is working with Save the Children, the Child Poverty Action Group, the End Child Poverty campaign and other groups on their campaign to help the Government meet its ambitious targets.