Big Issue leads call for the government to set targets to end child poverty in upcoming strategy

The government is facing more pressure over its long-delayed child poverty strategy, with campaigners urging them to “accept accountability” by setting measurable targets for reducing UK child poverty.

An open letter signed by dozens of children’s charities, campaigners, MPs, peers and high-profile advocates, expresses growing fears that the government may be looking to “dodge the vital layer of scrutiny” that targets place on them as they look to drive down the record levels of hardship faced by children in Britain.

The letter has the backing of more than 50 signatories – including the actor Emilia Clarke, broadcaster Chris Packham and presenter George Clarke – has been led by the Big Issue and its founder, John Bird, who is a crossbench peer in the House of Lords.

Read more:

• What could – and should – be in Labour’s long-awaited child poverty strategy?
• Two-child benefit cap is ‘punishing’ working families, Labour warned ahead of child poverty strategy
• I’m a single dad asking Keir Starmer and his government to do more to tackle child poverty

Leading anti-poverty and children’s charities including the National Children’s Bureau, Barnardo’s, Amnesty UK and the food bank charity Trussell have backed the Big Issue’s call, as well as MPs and peers representing Labour, Greens and the SNP.

There is growing concern from the sector that the child poverty strategy, which is expected to be published around the time of the November budget, will not include targets for the number of children Labour wishes to pull out of poverty during the parliament.

“Quite simply, we’re worried that the government does not want its homework marked when it comes to child poverty,” the letter reads.

Signatories argue that the child poverty strategy is “a landmark opportunity to set a truly transformative agenda for long-term change”, but warn that “in an increasingly challenging economic climate there is every reason to worry warm words will not translate into tangible progress”.

“Targets will provide much-needed benchmarks to track progress and keep driving action forward,” they insist. You can read the open letter in full on Big Issue.

According to predictions from the Child Poverty Action Group, 100,000 further children a year are set fall into poverty on society’s current trajectory, with nearly 5 million children expected to live in poverty by 2029.

Earlier this year, Lord Bird proposed an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that would place a duty on government to set legally binding child poverty targets.

Rejected by the government at committee stage back in June, the minister argued that such targets were “not an effective means of binding government to a specific course of action” – an argument that has prompted concern from the child poverty sector, which sees child poverty targets as a vital mechanism for propelling urgent work forward.

Lord Bird will reintroduce his child poverty target amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill when it returns for its report stage in the House of Lords later in the year. He has the support of a number of leading peers, including Baroness Ruth Lister, Honorary President of the Child Poverty Action Group.

The founder of the Big Issue said: “With child poverty in England and Wales predicted to rise to new pernicious highs, we cannot accept rhetoric in place of real change – we must demand sustained, legislative action.

“Poverty reduction targets will hold Westminster’s feet to the fire and stop delays like we’ve seen with the long-promised child poverty strategy, which continue to wait for nearly sixteen months into Labour’s time in government.”

Anna Feuchtwang, chief Executive officer of the National Children’s Bureau, said: “The child poverty strategy could be a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of children in the UK, giving them the chance to thrive that they deserve. But the government must match ambition with accountability: legally binding targets will make sure promises are being followed through with the action and tangible results that children and families desperately need.”

No date has been set for the publication of the child poverty strategy, which was previously delayed from Spring to Autumn 2025. The chancellor Rachel Reeves has signalled the November budget will include a significant overhaul of the controversial two-child benefit limit, which impacts 1.7 million children in Britain, although charities have expressed concern over claims that the policy could be replaced with a new tapered system.

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