Foundation launches 5-point plan to end poverty for 13 mln Britons

One of Britain's leading social charities launched its biggest campaign Tuesday to ensure the first generation of post-Brexit children enters a poverty-free country.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JFR) announced it wanted to see a new "long-term deal" to solve poverty which would involve governments, business and the public.

Launching the campaign in Westminster, Julia Unwin, the foundation's CEO, said: "It's shameful that, in the 21st century, 13 million people in our wealthy country are living in poverty."

The initiative is needed, said the foundation, to solve poverty in a generation, so the first cohort of "Brexit children" starting school this fall grow up and enter adult life in a prosperous and poverty-free Britain.

In its report, the foundation said poverty cost Britain more than 104 billion U.S. dollars a year, or 1,600 U.S. dollars for every person, equivalent to 4 percent of Britain's GDP.

The foundation has called on Prime Minister Theresa May to "make good on the promise to make Britain work for everyone."

Their strategy sets out a target where the first post-Brexit children enter adulthood in 2030 in a Britain where no one is ever destitute, where less than one in ten of the population are in poverty at any one time; and in which nobody is in poverty for more than two years.

At the launch, Unwin added: "A new 'long-term deal' to solve poverty is urgently needed...Previous approaches have been too piecemeal, failing to deal with issues such as the high cost of living."

The foundation wants to see 80,000 affordable homes built each year, better support, and help for job seekers, and raised skills training so five million more adults have basic literacy, numeracy, and digital skills by 2030. Endit