FAITH leaders are calling on the Government to be “bold and ambitious” in its strategy to reduce poverty among children, which affects nearly one-third of all children in Britain.

The lead bishop for poverty, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow, who is the Bishop of Leicester, is among the 35 signatories from the six major faith traditions of an open letter to the co-chairs of the ministerial Child Poverty Taskforce, the creation of which was announced after the King’s Speech last July, just days after the general election (News, 19 July 2024).

The former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams and the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Most Revd Mark Strange, have also signed the letter to the co-chairs of the taskforce, the Work and Pensions Secretary, Liz Kendall, and the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson.

Some 4.3 million children, or 3 in 10 of children in the UK, were living in poverty in 2022/23, according to government figures. The Government acknowledges that reducing child poverty will improve children’s chances of future success and lead to economic growth.

The letter, issued on Sunday, however, states that, without new interventions, a further 400,000 children could fall into poverty over the next decade, citing a report published on Wednesday by the Methodist-linked charity Action for Children.

The letter also says that “millions are fed and supported because communities have risen to the challenge of ever-increasing poverty and hardship”, including through running “debt centres, food banks, food pantries and warm hubs”.

The faith leaders write that they “recognise that there are many pressures on public spending”, but add: “In setting out your Child Poverty Strategy, we ask you to demonstrate that you match the commitment and ambition of our communities.”

Bishop Snow said: “The scourge of poverty we see in our country today has profound implications on [children’s] health, wellbeing and life chances. Churches will continue to play their part in supporting children and their families experiencing hardship . . . an ambitious child poverty strategy would make a significant difference in the communities we live in and among.”

The President of the Methodist Conference, the Revd Helen Cameron, said: “We know it is possible to significantly reduce child poverty, and a social-security system that enables families to afford the essentials will be a central pillar.”

The Action for Children report, Paying the Price, suggests changes that it says could lift 1.2 million children out of poverty by 2029. These include “action to reform and invest in a more effective social-security system, and steps to boost social housing and improve opportunities for income from employment”. The report also says that ending the two-child limit and benefit cap is “the single most cost-effective policy option the government could take towards ending poverty”, although “it won’t be enough by itself”.

A press release accompanying the letter includes the story of Louise (24) from London, a care-leaver and the mother of a four-year-old. “I want the best for my daughter and to give her opportunities I didn’t have,” she is quoted as saying. “Even though I worked as much as I could, before she went to school, I was in my overdraft every month and relying on Universal Credit just to pay for childcare so I could keep my job. . . There is more support needed . . . to help people stay in work, care for their children and thrive.”

In 1999, the then Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged to end child poverty in a generation. His Labour government introduced a series of targeted measures and benefits increases that drove down child poverty to 18 per cent in 2010-11. But, after a series of austerity cuts introduced in response to the global financial crisis in 2016, the Conservative Government removed poverty targets that had been established in law by Labour in 2010.

Last May, Sir Keir Starmer said that, “in an ideal world”, he would scrap the cap, but “we haven’t got the resources to do it at the moment.” Separately, he said that the last Labour government “took millions of children out of poverty and we will do so again”.