CPAG chief executive Kate Green welcomed Chancellor Gordon Brown's announcement of pilot schemes involving nursery education for 12,000 children in 500 areas and an additional 120,000 childcare places by 2008. But she said that the Government must now 'shift up a gear if real, sustainable and long-term progress in tackling child poverty is to be achieved'.
She said that quality was more important than choice. 'Parents do not want to have to shop around for decent schools and services - they want to know there is a good school or children's centre on their doorstep.'
CPAG welcomed the 522m handed to the neighbourhood renewal fund, but said that the incomes of some of the poorest families remained too low. Ms Green said the target to halve child poverty by 2010 'cannot be met without year-on-year increases in investment in tax credits and child benefits. We are concerned that the job cuts announced for the Department for Work and Pensions and Inland Revenue may have a negative effect on some of the poorest families.'
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