The answer to Britain’s low pay crisis is not more years of austerity and uncertainty, but a pay rise for those struggling to make ends meet, writes Kate Green MP A report from the Child Poverty Action Group last month showed that working parents are finding it harder to meet basic living costs. Meanwhile, the …

Britain’s children pay a heavy price for Labour’s fall from power. ‘Improving Children’s Life Chances’, a new book from Child Poverty Action Group, sets out the scale of the crisis, and some policy solutions. We Brits have a terrible record in our treatment of children. Our infant mortality rate is 21st out of a list …

Unicef’s analysis of child wellbeing across the developed world, released today, is emphatic that increasing family incomes is a critical tool to boost children’s educational success, health and happiness. In saying this, it is issuing a pretty clear warning to the United Kingdom government that poverty-producing policies will deprive children of happy, healthy and secure …

Since the election an important debate has opened up over how far state benefits should be underpinning family living standards. The government is clearly trying to reduce what it sees as unnecessary dependency, including for families in low-paid work. It has approached this from multiple angles. Significantly higher minimum wages and tax allowances will increase …

‘A strong society means moving forward together, no one left behind, fighting relative poverty a central policy goal.’ Well, Child Poverty Action Group would say that, wouldn’t they? In fact, these are the words of David Cameron, less than a decade ago, a day on which he also proclaimed: ‘I want this message to go …

In 2010, the prime minister and the deputy prime minister acknowledged ‘difficult decisions will have to be taken in the months and years ahead’, but promised the coalition would ‘ensure that fairness is at the heart of those decisions so that all those most in need are protected’. Five years later the Institute for Fiscal …

The Progress business breakout session, entitled Osborne’s Not Working: How do we get Britain back to work?, was an example of real progress and commitment that Labour has to becoming the natural party of business. Chaired by Seema Malhotra, the chair of the Labour backbench committee on business, and a panel featuring our shadow business …

Despite recent successes, Labour remains haunted by the perception of being the high-spending party. Though our argument that the coalition’s cuts are ‘too much, too soon’ is gaining credence, overall the electorate remains swayed by the rationale for austerity. The case for austerity is rooted in the incorrect yet powerful metaphor of the household budget: …

If to govern is to choose then the coalition government is going to be responsible for an awful lot of money being spent in years to come because of not choosing children today. The Purple Papers, published by Progress, are a welcome call for an approach that sees the wisdom in taking strategic decisions to …

London local authorities are stuck between a rock and a hard place, according to a new report published today by CPAG and Lasa examining the early and predicted impact of welfare reforms on London. The report, based on interviews with local authorities and advice agencies in the capital, finds that when it comes to their …