Almost half of Eastbourne's children live in low income families

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 7th Oct 2008

The Campaign to End Child Poverty has released data for every parliamentary constituency in the UK, showing how many children are living in low income families. Low income means where no-one is working more than 16 hours a week or the family is receiving the full amount of Working Tax Credit. In Eastbourne the research indicated that 45% of families live in low income households.

Lib Dem campaigner Stephen Lloyd said: "This is a shocking statistic. Child poverty is a blight on our society. In the 21st Century to have almost 1 in 2 children living in low income families in our Town is appalling and I am well aware from the amount of casework that I receive just how hard it is for many of these families to manage.

"It used to be true that if you worked hard, you could give your family a good life. Sadly, this is no longer true in Gordon Brown's Britain. The number of people living in poverty is going up.

Stephen added: "To help hard-pressed families, the Liberal Democrats have a three point plan: (1) cut national and local taxes (the basic rate of income tax down by one-fifth [from 20% to 16%] and abolish the unfair council tax); (2) increase spending in our schools for those who need it most, and (3) tackle poor housing, which shows a persistent link with poverty. A radical package of measures from the only party in politics today really committed to social justice."