One in three Southport children living in poverty
The government will make two key announcements next week which could change the lives of thousands in the town
Hello and welcome to the midweek edition of The Southport Lead.
Next week will see the government finally shares its strategy to end child poverty - an issue which has been getting worse year-on-year for more than a decade. While Southport is seen by many as a relatively affluent area, it is no stranger to these problems and one in three of our children are currently living in poverty.
In today’s edition, we took a closer look at those figures and what could be done to improve the lives of those who lie behind the numbers. In the coming weeks, we’ll be looking more and more at the issue of poverty - the factors behind it, life for those experiencing it, and what is being done to help.
If you have a story to share or want to suggest a person or organistion we should be speaking with, please get in touch at southport@thelead.uk
Southport briefing
🤝 Faith leaders, political leaders and families joined together to take part in the Walk of Unity on Sunday. Organised by Southport Interfaith Group, the second iteration of the community event saw people gathered for lunch Southport & District Reform Synagogue before walking to Christ Church and then Southport Mosque. Christ Church vicar Rev Ben Dyer said: “We may have different beliefs; we may have different ways of praying; we may have different holy books and different festivals; but so much of what we care about as faith communities overlap. We care about peace. We care about compassion. We care about justice. We care about the wellbeing of our neighbours. We care about passing on hope to the next generation.” Read more here
🤐 Sefton Council has been accused of a lack of transparency and accountability over the construction of the Marine Lake Events Centre. At a full council meeting, Tory group leader Cllr Mike Prendergast questioned the lack of progress following confirmation in September that a second lead contractor had left the project and described the period since demolition as a “Labour led shambles”. In response, deputy leader of Sefton Council, Cllr Paulette Lappin said: “Cabinet is clear in relation to updates on previous and current commercial negotiations, these are obviously therefore confidential. If the member had any commercial acumen at all, which seems to be what he’s questioning, he would understand exactly why we have to retain confidentiality to protect our negotiating position, and we are continuing to negotiate to ensure that we secure best value for the public purse. We are robustly managing relationships, negotiations and design development to ensure that we secure the best value for money we possibly can.”
🚯 Members of the public and businesses have been warned it is now a criminal offence to send waste to Johnson’s Skip Hire. The business, based on Crowland Street, was stripped of its waste permit in January but, according to the Environment Agency (EA), has continued to operate illicitly since then. A multi-agency visit involving the EA, Sefton Council and police and fire service took place last week and Johnson’s is required to clear the site.
Thousands of Southport children living in poverty
By Jamie Lopez
Almost one in three children in Southport are living in poverty as the government prepares to publish its plan on how to help those in need.
Across the country, child poverty is at a record level and, as evidenced in data published by the End Child Poverty Coalition, Southport is no exception to that.
In the decade leading to the most recent data which covers the 2023/24 period, the number of children living in poverty in the town rose from 4,469 to 5,689 - an increase from 24.2% to 34.1%.
Behind the data are real people who are being born into fewer opportunities and harsher conditions than those in other families. There are families who are having to use food banks to feed their children, children going without warm clothes in winter, or living in cold or unsafe housing.
As Gill Bainbridge, Chief Executive of Merseyside Youth Association, said, “poverty is not just about money, it’s about opportunity and the systems that shape young people’s lives”.
Patrick Hurley was elected as Southport’s first Labour MP in 2024 and says the town is not insulated from problems which have affected the whole country and pointed to decisions made under the previous governments as contributing to worsening living standards, namely the impacts of austerity which saw less money available and changes like the closures of Sure Start centres.
He said: “Too many children in Southport are living in poverty. I’ve seen over the course of the 16 months since I was elected that we’ve got too many children in desperate housing conditions. There are families that are going without and I know full well speaking to families there’s parents throughout the town that go without meals to make sure that kids are fed and get what they need. We’ve got to do something to alleviate that.”
Hurley said that reducing child poverty by half was the “guiding star of the last Labour government” and that it “should be a real feature of what the government does for the next four years and hopefully the five after that”. While he has not publicly stated what changes he wants to see in next week’s budget, he says he has made his opinions clear to ministers in private.
Earlier this year, the Secretaries of State for Work & Pensions and for Education issued guidance ahead of the publication of the government’s child poverty strategy which they say will outline a plan to begin reducing child poverty after more than a decade of increases. This, they say, will form part of “10-year strategy for lasting change”.
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