Jim McMahon MP: Almost half of children in Oldham are growing up in poverty under this Tory government

Jim McMahon, MP for Oldham West & Royton

Research from the end child poverty coalition has revealed that Oldham west and Royton has the 10th highest rate of child poverty in UK.

Almost half (45.58%) of children in Oldham West and Royton are growing up in poverty under a Conservative Government.

It is increasingly difficult for families on low incomes to live a decent life despite working hard.

A mixture of low skills and low wages coupled with a heavily reliance on low quality privately rented accommodation, but which cost much more than social housing, makes it difficult to make ends meet.

Low wage employment means that in households where there is only one person employed they ultimately have less money to cover essential bills.

Manchester Central and Manchester Gorton are also in the top 25 parliamentary constituency for child poverty rates.

Oldham West and Royton currently has the second fastest growth in child poverty in the UK, with a 10% point increase between December 2015 and September 2017.

The new figures reveal that there are now constituencies within the UK where more than half of children are growing up in poverty – compared to one in ten, in the areas with the lowest child poverty rates.

The figures also show that some of the most deprived areas of the UK have seen the biggest increases in child poverty since the coalition’s local child poverty figures for December 2015. Increases of 10 percentage points in some areas demonstrate the growing crisis of child poverty in the UK.

The government need to respond by:

• Addressing the high dependency on low quality but expensive privately rented homes, instead using the money to build affordable social housing.
• Investing in skills for those in work to learn new trades and to gain new qualifications.
• Funding reliable and more affordable public transport to reduce the reliance on expensive car ownership for shift workers.
• Investing in attracting new employers offering clear routes of progression.
• Ensuring that all public bodies, who are often the organisations offering good jobs with career progression, reflect the local community where they are based.
• Ensuring the next generation have better opportunities with focused early intervention, high performing schools and meaningful employer engagement which reflects the true functioning economic area for instance Greater Manchester and Cheshire.