The long-awaited child poverty strategy has promised more accessible childcare and an end to families being stuck in bed and breakfasts beyond the legal limit, plans the government said would give all children “a good start in life”.
With a record high of 4.45 million children living in poverty in the UK, Sir Keir Starmer said tackling the issue is a “moral mission for me” and described the strategy as one which “sets a new course for national renewal, with children’s life chances at its heart”.
But campaigners have expressed concern the strategy does not go far enough, with Big Issue founder Lord John Bird warning against “warm words” and a strategy he said was lacking in “ambitious targets”.
The prime minister is expected to meet families and children in Wales on Friday, alongside the Welsh First Minister, to speak to those likely to benefit from the strategy.
The government said failure to tackle child poverty also holds back the economy, with young people growing up in these circumstances doing less well in school, being more likely to be unemployed when older and earning less.
But crossbench peer Lord Bird, who experienced poverty as a child, said: “The absence of ambitious targets to propel forward this government’s mission to reduce child poverty is deeply concerning.
“In this challenging economic climate, there is every reason to worry warm words will not translate into tangible progress.”
Echoing this, the National Children’s Bureau said it wanted to see “binding targets for further reductions over 10 years but this level of ambition is sadly missing”.
The key move to scrap the controversial two-child benefits limit from April next year – already announced in last week’s Budget – will result in an estimated reduction of child poverty by 450,000 by 2029/30 at a cost of £3bn.
The government has said combining other measures such as the wider rollout of free school meals means the overall effect of its strategy will be to lift 550,000 children out of poverty by 2030.
It has pledged a rule change from next year to extend eligibility for upfront childcare costs to people returning from parental leave, which it said will make it easier for new parents who receive universal credit to get back to work.
The strategy will “also end the unlawful placement of families in bed and breakfasts beyond the six-week limit” the government said, confirming it will continue an £8m pilot programme for the next three years across 20 local authorities with the highest numbers in this situation.
It came as homelessness minister Alison McGovern said she would consider herself “a failure” if babies are still being discharged from hospital into bed and breakfast accommodation rather than permanent housing by the time she finishes her job.
Ms McGovern told BBC Breakfast: “It really, really shocked me to find out that in the five years to 2024, 74 children, including 58 babies, died and one of the causes that was attributed to their death was the effect of temporary accommodation and that’s because of poor healthcare.
“So as part of our child poverty strategy, we’re working with the NHS to make sure that no newborn baby is discharged from hospital into B&B accommodation, which I am so sorry to say, does occasionally happen, and then make sure the GPs are notified so that we can get proper healthcare.”
She added: “If that’s still happening by the time I finish my job I will consider myself a failure.”
The most recent figures showed there were 2,070 households in England with children at the end of June which had been in bed and breakfast accommodation for more than six weeks.
By law, such accommodation is meant to be used only as temporary accommodation in an emergency and for no longer than six weeks.
Councils would also have a legal duty to notify schools, health visitors and GPs when a child is placed in temporary accommodation, in an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill currently going through Parliament.
The government said it will work with the NHS to “end the practice of mothers with newborns being discharged to B&Bs or other forms of unsuitable housing”.
Homelessness charity Crisis said such a measure has “the potential to save lives as we know young children have tragically died in unsuitable temporary accommodation”.
In January a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Households in Temporary Accommodation said 74 children, mostly babies, had died in recent years in England with temporary accommodation recorded as a possible contributory factor.
But both Crisis and Shelter called for the government to unfreeze housing benefit and build more social rent homes, which the latter said could help “relegate homelessness to the history books”.
The government said the strategy is “the first step on our road to ending child poverty” – a point the Child Poverty Action Group welcomed as recognition “there is much to do”.
Its chief executive Alison Garnham said while the ditching of the two-child limit and expansion of free school meals “will improve the lives of children up and down the country”, the government “must now build on this momentum to achieve more tangible change for children”.
Save the Children UK said the strategy contains “bold measures to improve childhoods – not the sticking plaster measures of the past”, while The Children’s Society said: “If fully delivered, the commitments made today have real potential to transform children’s lives.”
Meanwhile, the Institute For Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank said its analysis suggested regions with higher child poverty will see larger proportional increases in household income from the two-child limit being scrapped.
It said in 2026/27, the mean income for households receiving such benefits will rise by 0.32 per cent in Yorkshire and The Humber, 0.31 per cent in Wales and 0.30 per cent in the North West.
The organisation said the North West will see the largest reduction in child poverty by the end of this Parliament, with around 90,000 children lifted out of poverty.
Sir Keir said: “Too many children are growing up in poverty, held back from getting on in life, and too many families are struggling without the basics: a secure home, warm meals and the support they need to make ends meet.
“I will not stand by and watch that happen, because the cost of doing nothing is too high for children, for families and for Britain.”
