MSPs to discuss strategies to tackle poverty
MSPs from across the political spectrum will come together today to address the challenge of tackling poverty across Scotland.
MSPs from across the political spectrum will come together today to address the challenge of tackling poverty across Scotland.
The event, to mark Challenge Poverty Week, will also be attended by the Scottish Government's anti-poverty adviser Naomi Eisenstadt and other experts.
Scottish Labour's community spokeswoman Pauline McNeill, who will chair the discussion at the Scottish Parliament, described it as a chance to build cross-party consensus on the issue.
Ms Eisenstadt, an expert in the impact poverty has on children, became the First Minister's independent adviser on poverty and inequality last year.
She made a series of recommendations in a report published in January, including ending the council-tax freeze and providing some free childcare for primary pupils.
The Government has consulted on a Child Poverty Bill which would require ministers to produce strategies to tackle deprivation and set statutory targets. Scottish Labour has proposed an Anti-Poverty Bill which would implement all 15 of Ms Eisenstadt's recommendations.
Ms McNeill said: I am delighted to welcome Naomi Eisenstadt to the Scottish Parliament to provide an overview of Scotland's relationship with poverty and discuss the work included in her ground-breaking report.
Kezia Dugdale has unveiled proposals for an Anti-Poverty Bill that would help to alleviate the shameful levels of poverty that continue to blight our communities.
That includes abolishing the council tax and replacing it with a fairer system - something the SNP promised voters it would do and then shied away from - and building 60,000 much-needed affordable homes for families.
We should also ensure that all firms awarded public contracts are forced to pay the living wage.
Such measures will ensure that we can compete for the high-skill, high-quality jobs of the future.''