Pledge to help parents in poverty battle

New moves to help struggling London parents hold down jobs were top of the agenda for a summit today.

Cheaper childcare and help with the costs of getting to work will be expanded as the Government struggles to meet its pledge to abolish child poverty. A £10 million pilot scheme starting next year will test new ways of supporting London parents trying to enter work.

The capital is on the frontline because a quarter of its 1.6 million children are judged to live in relative poverty. That compares with 22 per cent of families nationally. London also has fewer working mothers than the rest of the UK.

Today's summit, which includes academics, council heads and charity chiefs, followed Gordon Brown's keynote speech on ways to improve social mobility.

Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell said: "Eradicating child poverty by 2020 is one of the toughest targets ever set by a government."