Child Poverty Bill

Part of the debate – in a Public Bill Committee at 12:00 pm on 20 October 2009.

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Kate Green: I am not a great expert on this, but I make two points. First, I observe a strong commitment to public service across local government, and to the drivers that people feel to deliver high-quality services in their local community—you want to build on the positive there. Secondly, although I understand your point that rich areas never get the money and that it always goes to poor areas that are failing—the reward for failure—we need money to reach the families and communities that are failing the most.

The real problem with saying, “If you succeed, we will give you a bit more money to do more,” is not that we do not want to reward success but that we do not want to punish individual families when there has been a failure to meet standards and targets. It seems to me all the more important that funding reaches those most disadvantaged communities. It is not reasonable that individuals should bear the pain for administrative failure. You can see that, for example, when housing standards are not met and extra funding is then not available for further refurbishment of social housing estates. That is extremely hard on the people who have to live in that housing, and it is no fault of theirs that they are in that situation.