Usdaw calls for a focus on child poverty in working families and additional taxation of wealth not workers

Joanne Thomas – Usdaw general secretary says: “The UK is one of the seven wealthiest nations in the world, yet 4.5 million of our kids are growing up in poverty. That is absolutely shameful, particularly with 7 in 10 of them in working households. That is a legacy of 14 years of Tory failure, which the Government is working to turn around. We now need an end to the two-child cap, which will do more than any other policy to lift children out of poverty.

“Labour has made a good start since coming into Government, with a significant increase in minimum wage rates and we need another substantial rise for next year, to be announced in the Budget. Usdaw is participating in the Government’s reviews of the universally discredited Universal Credit system along with parental leave and pay. All these initiatives should make a real difference to working families, as has the rolling out of free breakfast clubs, new nurseries in primary schools and doubling free childcare to 30 hours a week.

“Clearly all these policies have to be paid for, and we welcome that the Government appears to have stepped away from breaking a manifesto promise and increasing income tax. We very much believe that additional taxes on working people in a cost of living crisis are not the way forward and the burden should fall on wealth not workers. 

“A fair new tax could be on owners of high-value properties, with an accommodation for cash-poor occupiers. It cannot be right that properties in Lancashire can be taxed at twice the rate of those in the City of London. So, we would like to see the Chancellor bring forward a new tax on high-value properties to help make our country more equal.”