END CHILD POVERTY MONTH OF ACTION

That this House welcomes the End Child Poverty Month of Action starting on 17th October; notes that child poverty increased dramatically in the United Kingdom in the 1980s and 1990s and that the United Kingdom has had one of the highest rates of child poverty in the developed world; welcomes recent progress in reducing child poverty but is concerned at indications of faltering progress; and calls on the Government to bring forward a range of policies to reduce child poverty and to increase opportunities for the most disadvantaged children, including more affordable housing, improved early years education, better targeted funding to support educational achievement, cutting or scrapping regressive taxes including the council tax, making work pay, and improving the operation of the tax credits and benefits system.