Target to halt child poverty

THE Government today unveiled a child poverty target for London to address concerns that too many children live below the breadline.

Ministers hope to increase the number of parents employed in the capital, which is below the national average, by three per cent over the next five years. One in four children in the capital grows up in poverty.

In a letter to London councils and MPs, Children's minister Beverley Hughes, London minister Tony McNulty and financial secretary Stephen Timms wrote: "Child poverty is not inevitable and is not acceptable." The target will be measured by the number of families claiming the child-care element of the working tax credit.