A UNIVERSITY of York academic today called for a wide-ranging debate on

whether taxes should rise to pay for greater spending in the war on child

poverty.

Prof Jonathan Bradshaw said the Government's policies had helped to lift

about £1 million youngsters out of poverty over the past three years.

But he has teamed up with seven other leading academics to warn a further

three million children's lives are being "diminished by poverty each day".

In an open letter they state: "The success of the anti-poverty strategy - as the government is starting to acknowledge - will ultimately depend on carrying the country with it.

"This requires three things. First, "doing good by stealth" needs to give

way to a higher profile, unequivocal, anti-poverty commitment across

government.

"Second, the anti-poverty policy must be integrated into, and presented as

part of, a broader strategy to create a fairer society.

"This will involve, for instance, linking the government's means-tested

child poverty policies to further real increases in child benefit to invest

in all our children - and all our futures.

"It will also mean extending the current debate about raising taxes to

include financing improvements in benefits as well as services, together

with the distributional implications of various tax-raising options.

"The forthcoming Budget, seen as setting the course for the second-term

Labour government, will be an important test of its continued resolve to

tackle child poverty.

"We call on the chancellor to use it to announce a further investment of

resources in the nation's children and to signal a wider debate on how to

build a fairer society, involving all sections of the population."

The other academics to have signed the letter are: Prof Ruth Lister, of Loughborough University; Fran Bennett

and Prof AB Atkinson, of University of Oxford;

Sue Middleton, of Loughborough University; Prof Jane Millar, of University

of Bath; Prof David Piachaud, of London School of Economics and Holly

Sutherland of University of Cambridge.

Updated: 09:04 Monday, March 25, 2002