Poverty fight could be part of business plan

from The Guernsey Press

by Nick Mann

CENTRAL funding could be used to rejuvenate the fight against poverty.

Progress on the Corporate Anti-Poverty Programme has been disappointing recently, according to social policy steering group chairman Peter Roffey.

It has discussed the idea of changing the way it is funded with Treasury and Resources.

‘I think what’s needed is a degree of funding for the Capp which isn’t given to the department, but given centrally for this overarching desire to reduce poverty,’ said Deputy Roffey.

‘That model already exists, the drug and alcohol strategy has some central funding. The advantage is it only gets spent on that.’

The group he chairs acts only as a coordinating body for the battle against poverty. ‘There’s nothing we can do to force departments to implement the various parts of the plan.’

‘With budgets being constrained, they are having to juggle it with other priorities and it doesn’t necessarily come out on top.’

A report is being compiled with an update on progress on the programme for States members and the public. It should be published soon.

Deputy Roffey admitted that progress was less than he would have liked to have seen.
He expects that Capp will eventually be subsumed into the Government Business Plan.
‘The advantage of the plan is there are significant proposals relating to the redistribution of wealth,’ he said.

‘If passed, that’s a specific instruction of the States that they want things done. The onus would be on department to achieve that or explain to the States why not.’