Charities and academics back poverty reduction unit

Plans for the poverty unit were announced earlier in the week

A plan for a child poverty reduction unit announced by the North East mayor has been backed by charities and academics.

Kim McGuinness said the unit would be backed with £500,000 of investment.

The head of Children North East Leigh Elliott said it would be the "start of transforming change for countless babies, children, young people and their families".

Professor Liz Todd, a social sciences researcher at Newcastle University, said that Ms McGuinness's regional approach was "essential" but a "national solution was also needed".

A report from the North East Child Poverty Commission (NECPC), published in February estimated that more than a third of children in the north-east of England were living in poverty.

Ms McGuinness's office said the poverty reduction unit would work with the region's seven local authorities and wider childcare system to "develop the most effective way of tackling poverty".

"By tackling poverty in the North East, we can ensure everyone benefits from devolution and the investment we’re seeing in the region," said Ms McGuinness.

'Socially unjust'

The executive director of Health Equity North Hannah Davies said it "welcomed" the action taken by the mayor after its research had consistently shown that child poverty in the region was the worst in the country.

Professor Todd said the launch of the unit was "extremely good news" but more was needed to combat child poverty.

She also said the mayor should campaign for the North East to become a "real living wage" region.

"Even in North East families where all adults worked, 21.5% of children were in poverty compared to 16.1% across the UK," she said.

Professor Greta Defeyter, a food insecurity researcher at Northumbria University, said she welcomed the unit but said there needed to be a wider focus on school-aged children.

"It seems socially unjust that all primary school children in London receive free school meals but in the North East households are means tested," she said.

The head of charity, Feeding Families, Juliet Sanders, said she hoped the unit would bring together key players so that "underlying problems" could be solved "rather than treating the surface problems".