Debate contribution: Anti-poverty Strategy

Debate contribution by Mr Gordon Lyons on 17 June 2025.

MLA

Mr Gordon Lyons

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

17 June 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Ministerial Statement

Heading

Anti-poverty Strategy

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5013452

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I wish to update the Assembly on the Executive's draft anti-poverty strategy. For too long, there has been no joined-up, cross-departmental approach to tackling the problem of poverty in our society. That will soon change. I am pleased to announce that, following the Executive's agreement on a draft version of the anti-poverty strategy, today will see the launch of a public consultation to allow the public the opportunity to comment on the plans that we have developed. When I took office, I made it clear that one of my priorities was to tackle poverty. After a legacy of delay in taking that work forward, I wanted to work at pace to develop a strategy that could help to make a meaningful difference to those who are experiencing socio-economic disadvantage in our society. For me, it was essential that we developed a strategy that was not only practical but sustainable and deliverable. Rather than making promises that could not be kept, my Executive colleagues and I have worked to develop a strategy that we will be able to make progress against and that will make a difference to people's lives. The strategy is the culmination of considerable hard work, collaboration and co-design. I thank all those stakeholders, particularly the members of the anti-poverty co-design group, who worked with my Department to provide their input. We often hear about the silo approach in government, but I know that Ministers and officials across Departments have worked together on the draft in a spirit of cooperation and collective ownership. Our approach does not only look at helping to raise people's incomes in the short term, important though that is. It is equally essential that we identify and address the root causes of poverty and support people to address some of the key issues in their lives. For example, it is about ensuring that they have the opportunity to achieve in education and supporting them to address physical and mental health issues and access a range of opportunities to find well-paid and meaningful employment. For that reason, our agreed anti-poverty strategy focuses on three key pillars on which we must focus our collective efforts if we want to see meaningful change. The three pillars are: aiming to minimise the risk of people falling into poverty; helping to minimise the impacts of poverty on people's lives; and working with people to help them to exit poverty. That approach is an important step forward, and it is the right one to take, given the scale of the problem that we face. It is only through addressing those areas together that we will be able to tackle poverty in a manner that allows for continual improvement. We have also recognised the cyclical nature of poverty. For example, poor health or educational outcomes can be the impacts and the causes of poverty. The publication of the strategy will not mark the finish of the Executive's work on tackling poverty. Rather, it marks the next important step in an ongoing process. Even in the absence of a strategy, my Executive colleagues and I have taken forward work that is aimed at helping those who are suffering as a result of socio-economic disadvantage. While some of our critics have spent their time naysaying and critiquing, we have been delivering. That was recognised in the Executive's Programme for Government (PFG), which included a range of actions that are designed to help some of the most disadvantaged in our society, by, for example, developing a growing and competitive economy and cutting health waiting times. My Department has also helped and supported those who most need assistance, whether that is by extending welfare mitigations, getting more people signed up to the benefits that they deserve through the Make the Call service or improving affordable housing availability with the delivery of the housing supply strategy. That work will keep moving forward. In my Department, I have committed to a range of new actions in the strategy. Those include the delivery of a fuel poverty strategy and developing a new People and Place strategic framework. Other colleagues are taking similar steps. For example, the Minister of Education has committed to taking forward legislation on ensuring that school uniforms are affordable, and he has also agreed that a budget of £23 million will be available in 2025-26 to provide a 15% childcare subsidy for working parents who are eligible for tax-free childcare. I will also continue to engage with colleagues in Westminster to address issues around welfare reform and lobbying for the repeal of the two-child limit. That is not to say that the strategy is more of the same. All that work now sits, for the first time, in an integrated framework, allowing us as an Executive to effectively monitor, coordinate and deliver real-world impacts. Poverty is not a problem that the Executive can solve in isolation. Rather, it will require government, public bodies, voluntary and community organisations, communities, families and individuals all working together to make a meaningful and lasting change to our society. That is why this statement is so important. The public consultation provides an opportunity for all areas of society to comment on the draft anti-poverty strategy and highlight any areas that they feel could be strengthened further. We are keen to hear new ideas or innovative approaches on how we should take this work forward. The consultation will be a significant engagement with society, and we will treat all contributions to it seriously and thoughtfully. I also highlight the fact that, in order to allow people time to consider and respond, we are going beyond the normal eight- and 12-week time frames for public consultation. I have asked officials to allow a 14-week period of consultation. It will open today and continue until mid-September. The public consultation on the draft anti-poverty strategy is a significant step forward in how the Executive address the problem of socio-economic disadvantage in our society. Final publication later in the year will not mark the end of the cooperation and coordination between Departments that has been a feature of the strategy's development. Instead, it will mark the starting point for all Departments to move to implementation with commitment and a focus on delivery. In closing, let me say that I recognise and understand the concern that the absence of this document has had for many people for many years. Today, I am taking action and doing something about that, not because I want to publish a document to simply tick a box but because I want us to have a joined-up, coordinated plan to tackle poverty. Why? It is because I see poverty every day. I witness it in the lives of people in East Antrim, who I am privileged to represent, and beyond, and we should want to make them better. I mean the pensioner struggling with rising heating costs; the mother juggling the costs of school uniforms and sports gear with all the other essentials; the father not knowing how he will afford yet another increase in rent; and the child whose ambitions and potential are not fully realised. We are talking about people, their well-being, their health and their future. That is why we need a strategy that will help us to make progress in tackling one of the most pressing issues that we face. Therefore, I commend the statement to the House.

No, absolutely not, and the Member is wrong in every point that he has made. We waited for the document for 17 years, and, after 17 months in office, I have been able to bring it forward. Let me address one of the issues that the Member raised. He said that the co-design group's input is on the cutting-room floor: that is absolute nonsense. The co-design group raised period poverty as an issue, and we have tackled that in the document. The co-design group identified the need to address fuel poverty, which we will do as part of the strategy. The co-design group identified the need to make school attendance cost-neutral, and Paul Givan is taking forward work to do just that: the RAISE programme will raise achievement to reduce educational disadvantage, and legislation is being worked on to ensure affordable school uniforms. The co-design group asked that mitigation payments be extended: the Executive agreed and extended that package. The co-design group asked us to continue to pressure the UK Government on the pensions triple lock: we agreed. The co-design group highlighted the need for a childcare strategy: we agreed. The co-design group raised issues of low pay and workers' rights, and the Department for the Economy is addressing that issue. The co-design group highlighted housing as an issue, and the Member knows only too well the work that I am doing and will continue to do in that area. The co-design group asked that we maximise and improve access to benefits. We are doing all those things and much more.

1,495 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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