Poverty event to highlight shocking facts, progress made and political challenge ahead

2.03.07

Poverty in Scotland event: Friday 2nd March 2007

Time: 10.00am for 10.30am
First Minister’s address: 10.30am
Venue: Continuing Professional Development Centre, Harley Buildings, Glasgow Caledonian University, Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow G4 0BA

• 910 000 people in Scotland living in poverty
• includes 240 000 children in poverty
• “Poverty must be key election issue”, say campaigners
• First Minister to give keynote address on poverty in Scotland

A unique partnership of academics, campaigners and frontline workers have brought together the latest shocking facts and figures on poverty in a new book, starkly titled Poverty in Scotland 2007. The book is to be launched at an event on Friday, March 2nd at which First Minister Jack McConnell MSP will also make a keynote speech on poverty.

The organisations behind the book say the event presents a challenge to politicians and public alike to make ending poverty a top election issue. According to the 182 page book progress has been made in reducing the number of people living in poverty in recent years. But their findings show just how much more needs to be done.

John Dickie, Head of Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland, says:

“Poverty in Scotland 2007 shows why politicians from all parties must commit themselves to the action needed to eradicate poverty. They must use the coming elections to tell us what more they would do to build on the progress already made. Yes, poverty rates have fallen since the first Scottish Parliament elections in 1999, but that is of little comfort to the 910 000 people, including nearly a quarter of a million children, still living in poverty today. We all face some fundamental choices. Do we want our children to grow up in a society scarred by poverty, or are we willing to pay for the decent wages, benefits and services that would lift all Scotland’s people out of poverty?"

Peter Kelly, Director of Poverty Alliance, says:

"This new publication highlights that poverty remains a significant problem for thousands of people across Scotland. But it also shows that real progress can be made if resources and political commitment is there. This is clear when we look at the experience of child poverty, where clear targets have been set and resources have been made available. Similar targets now have to be set for those who are now being left behind, particularly adults without children."

Dr Gerry Mooney, Open University in Scotland, editor and contributing author, says:

"While there is some evidence that particular dimensions of poverty, such as child poverty, have improved, there is also a marked unwillingness to tackle the causes of inequalities which scar Scottish society today. If further real progress is to be made in tackling all aspects of poverty, the structural inequalities which generate and reproduce it will also have been to be tackled and that means a far reaching redistribution of wealth and income."

Dr John Mckendrick, Scottish Poverty Information Unit, Glasgow Caledonian University:

“It is all too easy for comfortable Scotland to dismiss the reality of poverty. But poverty persists despite the positive strides taken in recent years. Scotland’s poverty is largely hidden to the majority, concentrated in particular urban estates or dispersed across the rural hinterland. Poverty amidst affluence is to found in many guises, from the Big Issue seller on the street corner, to the poorly paid cleaner working long, unsociable hours. Scotland must not only be prepared to recognize its’ poverty, it must also be prepared to take action to eradicate it.”

For further details or comment please contact:

John Dickie, Head of CPAG in Scotland on 0141 552 3656 or 07795 340 618

Peter Kelly, Director, Poverty Alliance on 0141 353 0440 or 07814 022 050

• For a full media briefing contact John Dickie above or email jdickie@cpagscotland.org.uk
• Poverty in Scotland 2007 is published by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), in association with the Scottish Poverty Information Unit, Poverty Alliance and the Open University in Scotland.
• The book will be launched at an event to be addressed by the First Minister in Glasgow on 2nd March 2007. Time: 10.00am for 10.30am. First Minister’s address: 10.30am. Venue: Continuing Professional Development Centre, Harley Buildings, Glasgow Caledonian University, Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow G4 0BA