Letter: the decline in Hackney’s child poverty

Re your front page article in issue 28, ‘Borough is fourth worst in UK for child poverty’, in which you note that the campaign group End Child Poverty maintains that child poverty in Hackney is moving in the right direction.  39% in 2011, compared to 43.5% in 2008, and 48% in 2007.

I also note on page two in a continuation of your piece headlined ‘Park nosh row’ you make the statement “No one can deny that our borough … has become progressively more middle class”.

The rise in the number of middle class people in our borough would explain the drop in the proportion of kids living in poverty.  But this does not necessarily mean that there is a London, or a nationwide, reduction in the number of children living in poverty.  Rather it is likely to mean that these families are being displaced to poorer neighbourhoods.

These statistics may not be cause for celebration and remind me of the claims made by Newham, that the Olympics will mean better health outcomes for their borough.

But while moving posh people into an area will change statistics, it is less likely to make any material difference to those in poverty.

Perhaps this is a case of … “lies, damned lies, and statistics”.

Mike Wells
Hackney boat resident