Katy Gordon

Katy Gordon spoke in the debate organised by the Poverty Alliance as party of their Ending Poverty in Scotland: Taking the Next Steps conference, which took place at the City Halls, Glasgow on Friday 29th Sept 06. Participating alongside Communities spokespersons from each of the 6 main political parties, Katy highlighted the Liberal Democrats priorities for tackling poverty in Scotland:

• Making the links between poor health, environmental sustainability and poverty (improving energy efficiency in homes to end fuel poverty)
• Focusing on food and nutrition (phasing out junk food in schools and extending availability of healthier food in deprived areas)
• Reforming local government finance (replacing the grossly unfair council tax with a fairer alternative based on ability to pay)
• Addressing low pay (helping more people to get into and stay in work)

Commenting after the conference, Katy said:

While the Scottish Executive, where we are in partnership government, has made good progress in reducing child poverty in Scotland, there is still a long way to go.

Conferences like this are important in continuing the debate and airing new ideas to tackle the continuing shame of high levels of poverty in the 4th richest country in the world.

We need to work on tackling homelessness, reducing the extremely high levels of personal debt and increasing effective prevention measures to reduce health inequality, especially in Glasgow, where life expectancy is much lower than in the rest of the country.

Edit: To find out more about the Scottish Liberal Democrats plans to tackle poverty in Scotland, read “Stephen Sets Up Future Opportunities Comission“.