Organisation warns tackling poverty in Dumfries and Galloway is getting harder
A report has looked into the situation
Tackling child poverty in Dumfries and Galloway is getting harder — and bigger interventions are needed to make a real difference — a leading organisation has warned.
Researchers from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation told councillors this week that poverty in the region is deepening, meaning more families are falling further below the poverty line rather than hovering just beneath it.
Three women from the Foundation — Carla Cebula, Annie McKenzie and Charlotte Gorman — gave a sobering presentation at the council’s tackling poverty, inequalities and housing sub committee on Tuesday.
The poverty line is a fixed income threshold and many families are needing boosts to their income to be lifted over the line.
Foundation analyst Carla Cebula explained that very deep poverty levels have been “creeping up” over the last 30 years, and that an average couple with two primary-age children in very deep poverty need £1,160 a month more just to reach the poverty line.
By contrast, a family who are in poverty but not deep poverty need just £160 a month more to cross it.
She said: “Smaller interventions will not be sufficient to pull many households in poverty over the poverty line.”
With 23 percent of children in the region — around one in four — currently living in poverty, researchers said the scale of the challenge demands action at a local level.
For every job available in Dumfries and Galloway, there are seven people who want to work.
Policy and research adviser Annie McKenzie told the committee this “simply tells us that there are not enough suitable jobs for people.”
She added that nine in ten people in Dumfries and Galloway work in the local authority where they live. Three in ten people who want to work in the region are parents.
The current childcare offer was “often inflexible for families,” started “too late for many people” and remained “unaffordable for families on a low income.”
On housing, researchers pointed to the rural nature of the region as making affordable homes especially critical.
Annie McKenzie said: “Within an area like Galloway, it’s also crucial that rural communities are supported to provide affordable housing in their communities.”
She added that the concentration of second homes and holiday lets was contributing to rising prices and depopulation.
Dee and Glenkens Councillor Andy McFarlane asked what level of investment would be needed to turn things around and how the region could attract better-paid jobs.
Senior policy adviser Charlotte Gorman replied that meeting the Scottish Government’s poverty reduction targets by 2030/31 would require getting around 50,000 parents across Scotland into work at the real living wage with increased hours — compared to the current best-case projection of just 12,000.
Council officer Mark Molloy confirmed that new locally-commissioned research — following up on academic work done five and ten years ago — has just been commissioned and will be completed before Christmas, covering poverty trends in the region over a 15-year period.