Councillors focused on West Lothian’s shocking child poverty figures in a political blame game at this month’s Executive, as parties position themselves ahead of the coming budget and Scottish elections.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service first revealed West Lothian is in the top ten of highest levels of child poverty in the country. In a list of shame, the county’s figure of 24.1% outstrips Edinburgh and neighbour South Lanarkshire.
The SNP said the report ignored the success of the Scottish Government in tackling the issue. Labour said the statistics showed more had fallen into hard times in the last decade.
Councillor Veronica Smith, SNP, said the introduction to the report was “selective and lacked balance”.
Susan Manion, Labour’s depute leader said: “We need to tackle the causes of poverty. It’s not about benefits.”
Anti-Poverty Service (APS) manager Nahid Hanif told the meeting: “The latest child poverty estimates from the End Child Poverty Coalition and Loughborough University indicate that, in 2023/24, 24.1% of children living in West Lothian were living in relative poverty representing a reduction of 0.5% from 2022/23. West Lothian remains above the Scottish average of 22%.”
The bleak report, the Local Child Poverty Action Report (LCPAR) detailed: “When comparing rates across the 32 local authorities in Scotland, West Lothian (24.1%) features in the top 10 areas with the highest levels of child poverty, ranking ahead of neighbouring local authorities: City of Edinburgh (22.8%), South Lanarkshire (19.5%), and the Scottish Borders (21.5%).”
SNP councillors said not enough credit was given to the success of Scottish Government benefits such as the Scottish Child Payment and mitigation against the two-child cap. And they highlighted the support of policies by national economists which show that Scotland is the only part of the UK where child poverty is falling.
Councillor Pauline Stafford, the opposition group’s depute leader, referring to scrapping the benefit cap, said: “Labour has been power for 16 months and had every opportunity to pull the one lever that every charity has said is the most cost-effective way to pull people out of poverty. You have not pulled that lever.
“There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that Scotland is the only part of the country where child poverty levels are falling.”
Thanking Ms Hanif and her team for an “incredible job” Councillor Stafford warned against considering cuts to the APS and other vital non-statutory services in the upcoming budget.”
Councillor Manion said: “Let’s make no mistake; this is absolutely shocking the fact child poverty is, in real terms, getting higher. The gap between richer and poorer children is getting wider; education attainment is getting wider between the richest and poorest areas.
“Where are we? It’s getting worse because we need to tackle the causes of poverty; it’s not about benefits. It’s not about who’s getting paid what, where and how over a particular time.”
Councillor Janet Campbell, the SNP group leader, told the meeting that child poverty figures were 23% in Scotland, 31% in England and 33% in Wales. “I don’t know why anyone here can say that policies instituted by the Scottish Government are not having a positive effect. No-one is saying we can rest on our laurels. No-one is saying we don’t need to do more.”
Conservative Angela Doran-Timson said that removing the two-child cap would cost the Westminster government an extra £4.5b. The real key to solving poverty was getting parents into work.
Chairing the meeting, Council Leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick defended what he called a “balanced report” and said: “Education is the key to ending poverty”.
He said the First Minister had given £20m towards a new concert hall in Edinburgh but had yet to provide any money to rebuild St Kentigern’s Academy in Blackburn, two thirds of which had to be demolished because of RAAC.
The Scottish Government spent money on favoured projects but starved education, also cutting the colleges budget by 20%. “ Where,” he asked, would society find the engineers, electricians and roofers of the future?
By Stuart Sommerville, Local Democracy Reporter
