TOWER HAMLETS NOW has the highest percentage of children living in poverty in the UK – and Cllr Ahmed, the Independent Mayoral candidate for Tower Hamlets, is demanding urgent action by both central government and Executive Mayor John Biggs.
Cllr Ahmed has made his call for action following the publication of a report into child poverty in the UK, describing its findings as “shameful”, “unforgiveable” and a “wake-up call” for Executive Mayor John Biggs and the borough’s MPs.
The report, based on research commissioned by an umbrella group of influential charities, found that a staggering 53% of children growing up in Tower Hamlets live in poverty (source: Compilation of child poverty local indicators, Centre for Research in Social Policy, Loughborough University).
Cllr Ohid Ahmed said, “We know that this Government’s never ending policy of national austerity, coupled with cuts to local services and to help for the poorest is having a devastating effect on those who are the most vulnerable of all – our children.
“But we also know that hard fought-for protections and policies for the poorest achieved by the last Administration in Tower Hamlets – when I was Deputy Mayor – have been allowed to wither and die under the hand of Mayor Biggs and his Administration. These protections had included allowances for 16 year olds staying in education and providing four Council run day nurseries.”
The Council has confirmed that the child poverty rate in Tower Hamlets peaked at 64% in 2007, when Cllr Denise Jones was Leader of a Labour Administration. The following year, Cllr Lutfur Rahman (then a Labour Councillor) was elected Leader of the Council – and by 49% child poverty had fallen to 49%.
The shock increase in child poverty under Labour’s Executive Mayor comes after a period of substantial re-build and re-development in the Borough. However, these figures demonstrate that new buildings do not necessarily translate into improving standards of living for local residents. In the case of all too many of the borough’s young children, this has clearly been the opposite case.
Cllr Ohid Ahmed and the Independent Group have pledged to restore front-line services and begin to turn back the tide in child poverty that threatens the future wellbeing of over half of the borough’s young people.
“It is one thing to stand up and fight for what is right, it is quite another to kneel and surrender as Mayor Biggs has done time and time again,” Cllr Ohid Ahmed.
“If ever there was a case for proving that ‘trickle down’ economics does not work, it is right here in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets,” said Cllr Ahmed. It is one thing to stand up and fight for what is right, it is quite another to kneel and surrender as Mayor Biggs has done time and time again. It is time for him and for the borough’s local MPs to make a very determined, noisy and effective stand. Frankly though, time for him and them to do so is fast running out. Residents can see this and they are taking note.”
•Read more about it: MPs deplore child poverty – but short on action Biggs’s borough: child poverty hotspot
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