A letter to the Sheffield Star/Telegraph
The last 14 years of government-imposed austerity have been devastating for communities in Sheffield. In Heeley, we have seen a huge rise in the use of food banks and ever-increasing poverty as the cost of living crisis has made it even harder to manage household bills.
Some policies seem designed to harm the poorest and most vulnerable in our community. An example is the two-child cap on benefits which punishes children for having been born and has plunged 420,000 families into poverty.
It was disappointing therefore to hear Louise Haigh (MP for Sheffield Heeley since 2015) on the BBC committing to keep the two-child cap which leaves families £3200 per child worse off every year.
To make matters worse, Labour have committed to even harsher austerity in the next Parliament than the Conservatives, according to BBC analysis. It is clear that the Tories are unelectable, but Labour are not offering the hope and real change our country needs.
A Resolution Society report found that scrapping the two-child cap policy would cost about £6.3 billion in today’s prices by 2035 and would lift about 490,000 children out of poverty.
The Green Party would end austerity – including the two-child cap – by introducing a small tax increase for the wealthiest in society. You can read our fully-costed manifesto here: https://greenparty.org.uk/about/our-manifesto/
Councillor Alexi Dimond,
Green Party candidate for Sheffield Heeley
