Charities and stars call on UK government to set child poverty reduction targets

Celebrities, MPs and children’s charities are among dozens of signatories to an open letter ramping up pressure on the government to set targets for reducing child poverty in the UK.The actor Emilia Clarke, the broadcaster Chris Packham and the presenter George Clarke have put their names to the letter, coordinated by the Big Issue founder John Bird, stating that the government’s reluctance to set binding child poverty reduction targets has “rung alarm bells”.Leading anti-poverty and children’s charities including the National Children’s Bureau, Child Poverty Action Group, Amnesty UK, Barnardo’s and the food bank charity Trussell have all backed the call, as well as MPs and peers representing Labour, Greens and the SNP.“Quite simply, we’re worried that the government does not want its homework marked when it comes to child poverty,” the letter reads. “It’s crucial the government gets the child poverty strategy right

Drone-blocking technology ‘urgently’ required at jails in England and Wales

Drone-jamming technology must be rolled out urgently across jails in England and Wales to help stem the endemic use and trade of drugs by organised gangs, MPs have concluded.The Commons justice select committee has found that the Prison Service’s ability to maintain safety and control is being “critically undermined by the scale of the trade and use of illicit drugs”.It has called for technology such as SkyFence, which uses sensors to block a drone’s computer, to be introduced across the prison estate. Category A prisons, which hold some of the most dangerous inmates, should be given anti-drone technology within two years, according to a report released on Friday.The Labour chair of the cross-party committee, Andy Slaughter, said: “Fuelled by inflated profits, the supply of drugs by organised criminal gangs into prisons is a constant pressure

Nearly 150,000 aged 90 and above wait 12 hours in England’s A&Es each year

Almost 150,000 people aged 90 and over in England are forced to wait longer than 12 hours in A&E every year, with some experiencing “truly shocking” waits of several days stuck in corridors, a report warns.Older people are also being left in their own excrement and wet beds for hours, denied pain relief and forced to watch and hear other patients die next to them because they end up waiting so long for care, according to Age UK.In total, more than 1 million patients aged 60 and over had to wait more than 12 hours to be transferred, admitted or discharged in type 1 emergency departments in 2024-25. One in three (33%) aged 90 or older – 149,293 – were forced to wait more than 12 hours.Caroline Abrahams, the charity director of Age UK, said: “What’s happening to some very ill older people when they come to A&E is a crisis hiding in plain sight which the government must face up to and take immediate action to resolve

Jaywick’s continued decline and intensifying London poverty tell same story of ‘broken’ Britain

It’s Jaywick again. For the fourth time in a row the tiny, apparently unprepossessing seaside village overlooking the north sea just down the coast from Clacton in Essex has reluctantly claimed the unenviable title of England’s most deprived neighbourhood.Top of the indices of multiple deprivation since 2010, Jaywick Sands, once a popular holiday destination for working-class Londoners, has become a emblem of “broken” Britain, an exemplar of economic neglect, austerity and social breakdown, compounded by geographic isolation.Its local MP, Reform leader Nigel Farage, seemed unusually vague when asked about Jaywick’s travails on Thursday. Parts of it, he opined, seemed “depressed,” adding that he was “obviously sad that things aren’t improving more quickly”

Living with the hidden horrors of illegal HMOs | Letters

The organisation complicit in allowing two illegal houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) in my block of six flats is a housing association (The crimewave sweeping Britain? Illegal houses in multiple occupation, 24 October). The owners of the HMOs, both property companies, have rented their flats to up to eight single adults over the past 15 years. The flats are registered by the local council as suitable for renting to three unrelated adults.Aditya Chakrabortty’s description of the outside of the HMO he mentions, with its jumble of bags and suitcases, describes the front garden of my block to a T as long as you add in broken furniture and urine-soaked mattresses, which are eventually removed by the housing association. Inside the block, cockroaches can be seen crawling around the front door of one of the HMOs, and all of the block’s kitchens and bathrooms have been invaded by cockroaches that were released when the other HMO was undergoing major renovations

Why can’t we eradicate both pensioner and child poverty? | Letters

“As long as a third of children are living below the poverty line, the government cannot justify keeping the pensions triple lock,” says the subheading on Polly Toynbee’s article (What kind of country puts its pensioners ahead of children in poverty?, 24 October).I agree completely that it is an outrage so many children are living in poverty, but pitting one generation against another is not a solution. More than 2 million people over the age of 65 are living in poverty. Poverty rates are even higher among those approaching state pension age, which raises concerns about the immediate future, even with the safety net of the triple lock in place. There is also no guarantee that saving money on the triple lock will be put to the benefit of impoverished children