Political parties should tackle poverty - poll

|PIC1|The results of a poll released today to coincide with the launch of a new anti-poverty campaign reveal that the majority of the public would like the major political parties to set out a strategy for eradicating poverty.

In the YouGov poll, 51 per cent of respondents said they would be more inclined to vote for a party that takes "serious measures" to eradicate poverty.

Only two per cent think there is no poverty in Britain, whilst just eight per cent think nothing can be done.

Outlining what they think should be done to tackle poverty, more than two thirds of respondents (69 per cent) said that the provision of more and better training to help people out of poverty was an effective method, whilst 36 per cent agreed that government intervention was best.

The poll was commissioned by Get Fair, a newly formed coalition of 50 charities and church bodies including the Church of England, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the YMCA, Church Action on Poverty and Church Urban Fund.

Fran Beckett, Chair of Get Fair and community campaigner, said the poll results "send a clear warning that voters want and expect our political parties to set out exactly how they will address poverty so that we have a real social safety net".

"Making Britain a fairer place should be one of the key political issues that parties discuss during their conferences over the next few weeks."

The launch of the Get Fair coalition comes not long after the Joseph Rowntree Foundation published research asserting that "the public are currently a long way from supporting an anti-UK poverty agenda. They are not aware of the problem and do not believe that it is a legitimate issue".

Get Fair is being launched to drive forward efforts to close the gap between rich and poor in the UK and to transform public attitudes towards poverty. Get Fair coalition members will lobby the major political parties to ensure they remain committed to ending child poverty by 2020 and seeing poverty eradicated across every generation in the UK.

Niall Cooper, National Coordinator of Church Action on Poverty, and coordinator of the Get Fair campaign, said: "Why is it that in the fifth richest country in the world, poverty continues to blight the lives of far too many people? Why is it that too many have failed to share in our increased prosperity as a nation?

"Ultimately what is lacking is the popular pressure and political will to bring change about.

"In the fifth richest country in human history there is no excuse for allowing the gap between rich and poor to continue to grow.

"It's time for politicians of all the major parties to sign up to a goal of ending UK poverty: Its time to Get Fair."

Cooper said that churches had a crucial role to play in eradicating poverty in the UK.

"Make Poverty History showed the power of the churches to take action to end global poverty. Our task, and our challenge, is now to bring this hope back home."