Overview

• On July 22, the North East Combined Authority cabinet and seven local council leaders approved a £28.6m child poverty action programme with funding secured through 2030.
• The strategy’s 36 interventions aim to support 120,000 children via early-intervention pilots including expanded childcare grants, a health-in-pregnancy scheme, baby boxes and youth activity programmes.
• A newly formed ‘warm homes taskforce’ will retrofit low-income households to lower energy bills and improve living conditions for struggling families.
• Data from the North East Child Poverty Commission shows 170,000 children—about 30% of those in the region—lived in poverty in 2023/24 after housing costs.
• Mayor Kim McGuinness is urging the UK Government to remove the two-child benefit cap and adopt the North East model as a roadmap for national policy ahead of an autumn task force report.