One in five local children living in poverty

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 7th Oct 2008

As many as one in five children in the Weston-super-Mare area are living in poverty according to research conducted by the End Child Poverty campaign.

According to the research 19% of children in the Weston-super-Mare Parliamentary Constituency, which includes Weston town and the surrounding villages, live in low income households.

This is amongst the highest in the south west region. Of 51 Parliamentary constituencies in the south west, Weston-super-Mare is ranked ninth.

Mike Bell, the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Weston-super-Mare, commented: "I fully support the End Child Poverty campaign. Child poverty is a blight on our society. In Weston-super-Mare, it affects thousands of children and their families.

"Ministers in Whitehall and Westminster seem to think that everywhere in the West country is green, leafy and prosperous. But the real picture is different. The Government needs to wake up to the reality in Britain's coastal and rural communities.

"It used to be true that if you worked hard, you could give your family a good life. But in Gordon Brown's Britain we are now seeing another story as families, both in work and out of it, are struggling to make ends meet. After ten years of Labour Government, the number of people living in poverty is going up."

To help hard-pressed families, the Liberal Democrats have proposed a package of measures. They would:

(1) cut national and local taxes (cut the basic rate of income tax by one-fifth [from 20% to 16%] and abolish the unfair council tax and replace it with a fairer system based on ability to pay;

(2) increase spending in our schools for those who need it most, and

(3) tackle poor housing, which shows a persistent link with poverty.

For more information visit: http://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/why-end-child-poverty/poverty-in-your-area#southWest