Labour MP Liam Byrne opens up about 'daily tragedy' of Birmingham child poverty
Birmingham Labour MP Liam Byrne has backed a citywide call to arms to address the city's Child Poverty Emergency, describing it as 'unjust' and 'a daily tragedy'.
Mr Byrne is the MP for Hodge Hill and Solihull North, one of the constituencies worst affected by the blight of child poverty. Two of the hardest hit wards are in his area, Heartlands (71%) and Ward End (65%).
He was responding to the findings of a critical BirminghamLive project which revealed the shocking upturn in child poverty in our city and its widespread impacts on health, safety and quality of life. The multi-visual data and real life stories project, called Birmingham: A Child Poverty Emergency, has been read thousands of times since we published it last Friday (September 20th).
READ MORE: Birmingham: A Child Poverty Emergency - the full report
Its key findings included that the number of children living in poverty in Birmingham is up from 27% in 2015 to 46% today - we are now the third worst place in the country, up from seventh worst a decade ago. We found that the worst affected wards were concentrated in inner city Birmingham areas, though pockets of severe deprivation exist in every part of the city.
We also found that 66% of children in poverty are in households that work. In our two month probe we found Birmingham's children stuck in cramped, cockroach-infested B&Bs for months, hospitalised from the effects of damp and mould on their asthma, going hungry and cold in overcrowded homes and exploited by criminals - with poverty the common thread. We also highlighted innovation and heroes who are helping support those families and communities worst hit.
The project, done in collaboration and with the support of city charities, families in poverty and local activists, put forward eight 'fixes' based on the data findings:
End the two-child benefit cap
Provide free school meals to every child in poverty
Create a city “aid bank” for baby and child essentials
Protect children’s and youth services spending
Create a permanent, multi year Household Support Fund and, additionally, restore Discretionary Housing grants
Set up child health and wellbeing hubs in our most deprived neighbourhoods
Appoint a Birmingham child poverty tsar
Provide free public travel for young people
You can read more about each of these asks, and the evidence backing them up, here.
We also called for an investigation into why Birmingham has fared so badly compared to other local authorities, and what is going to be done locally to stop more youngsters tumbling into poverty.
Mr Byrne said of our findings: "As the MP, I see first hand the daily tragedy of a community rich in talent but desperately denied the opportunities that others enjoy, because of the poverty of their parents. There is simply no justice to this.
"We can as a country take choices to create a different future for our children. The ideas in this ground-breaking BirminghamLive project are not free and they are not cheap.
"But we can afford them if we restore fairness to the tax system. For example, how can it be right that a man as rich as Rishi Sunak (former Conservative Prime Minister and current leader) who earns £2 million a year pays just 23% tax? If we asked the luckiest in society to pay a fairer share then we could afford to lift the unluckiest in our city out of hunger, out of homelessness and out of hopelessness."
Last year he published The Inequality of Wealth, subtitled 'Why it matters and how to fix it' which exposed the growing gap between rich and poor.
If you want to comment on our report, or wish to share your own experiences, please get in touch. Mark your email 'Child Poverty'. Email newsdesk@birminghamlive.co.uk