John Bird, founder of the Big Issue and crossbench peer, called on the Government to commit to long-term and focused approach to poverty prevention in a House of Lords debate last night (29 April).
Lord Bird argued that the current governmental model, which sees a plethora of departments tasked with reviewing and executing poverty policy, leads to an ineffective scattergun approach. His Bill for a Ministry of Poverty Prevention, which had its first reading in the Lords earlier in April, proposes centralising efforts to reduce poverty under one governmental remit.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation reports that around 30% of UK children (4.3 million) live in poverty, which has a long-term impact on their future health, wellbeing and economic prospects. These children face a high risk of deeper and more persistent poverty throughout their lifetime.[1]
John Bird was born into poverty, brought up in care, and spent long spells in the 50s and 60s rough sleeping. Since being made an independent peer in 2015, he’s dedicated his time to seeing poverty eradicated within his lifetime.
Speaking in yesterday’s debate, Lord Bird said: “I alert people to my belief that, in the seven or eight years I have been in the House of Lords, I have never come to a debate or discussion where the root causes of things are dealt with.
“I believe strongly that one of the main problems we have is that Governments, Oppositions, and people who have worked for many years in and around poverty are always dealing with the effects of poverty; they do not deal with the root causes.
