ANTI-POVERTY campaigners say this week’s pre-budget speech has struck the death knell for hopes of halving child poverty by next year.

Campaigners say chancellor Alastair Darling’s speech fell well short of the steps needed to reach the target in Scotland by 2020.

They now believe the target of eradicating child poverty by 2020 is in serious doubt.
Against a backdrop of economic recession, the chancellor’s speech was dominated by cuts in public services in an attempt to promote growth without “wrecking” recovery.   

However, anti-poverty campaigners believe the government has shifted its priority to
meet its child poverty targets.

Responding to the Pre-Budget Statement, Barnardo’s chief executive Martin Narey said concessions for families were thin on the ground, meaning they would lose out.  “The government has lifted half a million children out of poverty, but we are very disappointed that today’s pre-budget report has not gone far enough,” he said.

“A pledge was made to halve child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020. It is with a heavy heart that we now know the 2010 goal will not be met. We urge the government to continue in its ambition to end the scourge of child poverty through future budgets and the Child Poverty Bill.”

Narey’s fears were backed by John Dickie, head of the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland. While the group welcomed aspects of the pre-budget report, Dickie said “bolder” redistribution was needed to help poorest families.

Responding to the Chancellor’s announcement that child benefit will rise by 1.5 per cent Dickie said: “While it is right that benefits should be uprated when families are struggling, a 1.5 per cent increase in the light of predicted increases in inflation next year will still lead to poorer families falling further behind and leave benefits well below the poverty line.”

Overall, the voluntary sector received few meaningful concessions in the statement. Martin Sime, chief executive of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations expressed dismay at the chancellor’s failure to provide additional support for the third sector.               

Sime said: “We’re deeply dis-appointed that this statement offers no specific measures to help our sector as they struggle with the consequences of recession.

“Scotland’s voluntary sector provides vital services to the country’s most vulnerable people and delivers added value in terms of quality and cost.  

“Simple reforms to Gift Aid and addressing inconsistencies in VAT could have meant real help for charities across Scotland. But today the Chancellor has missed a golden opportunity to enable the sector to help to mitigate the impact of economic recession on those most in need.”

The voluntary housing sector, which is currently campaigning for more affordable homes, also expressed disappointment with the chancellor’s speech. 

Gordon MacRae, head of external relations at Shelter Scotland, said more cash was the only solution to address Scotland’s housing problems but this was not forthcoming in the speech.

“Over the last few months there’s been two ways to increase housing investment in 2010.

“The first was a plea to the UK Chancellor to accelerate capital investment from future years. On first reading, this appears to have fallen on deaf ears. 

“We are now back to looking at the second option, which is to allocate more of the Scottish Budget for next year into affordable homes.”

Budget
Key announcements
• VAT going back up to 17.5% in  January
• Empty property relief extended  into 2010/11
• Mortgage interest scheme extended by 6 months
• Expanding work and training opportunities for under 24s so that none need be unemployed for longer than 6 months
• Special employment support for over 50s
• State Pension to rise by 2.5 per cent in April
• Child benefit and disability to rise by 1.5 per cent in April
• Guaranteed more financial support to anyone made worse off by returning to work

Greening up Britain
• £160m Renewables innovation fund
• Additional £90m in European Investment Fund for 2020 project   (green infrastructure projects)
• Four carbon capture projects to be funded
• Smart Metres to be rolled out by 2020
• Addition £200m from April for energy efficiency in the home
• Boiler scrappage scheme to benefit 125,000 homes
• £900 average a year for people putting electricity back into grid through solar or other renewable energy in own home
• Electric cars exempt for company cars

Report from TFN (SCVO)