SIR – I must take issue with John Phillpott’s comments in the Worcester News (August 27) when he writes that “there is no longer any deprivation in Britain”.
While it is true that Britain has almost no absolute poverty, as seen in places such as the Horn of Africa, relative poverty in Britain is still an issue if we want to create a fair society.
According to data published by the Department of Work and Pensions, severe low income and material deprivation occurs where income is less than 50 per cent of average income.
The Government’s own figures show that five per cent or 700,000 children are growing up on less than £13 a person a day.
This £13 a day needs to cover food, transport, shoes, clothes, school trips, broken household items and household bills such as electricity, gas and water bills.
With government cuts affecting the most vulnerable disproportionately and now rising unemployment we can expect relative poverty to increase under the Conservative/ Lib Dem coalition.
The Green Party believes that to reduce poverty we need to reduce unemployment.
Instead of cuts we need to invest in hundreds of thousands of real jobs providing vital services and building up the nation’s infrastructure.
LOUIS STEPHEN
Worcester Green Party
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