Resolved –

This Council notes the findings of the 'Statement on Visit to the United Kingdom, by Professor Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights'.

This Council urges the Government to end its damaging austerity cuts with immediate effect and to pause the roll-out of Universal Credit, and to reconsider its harmful social security reforms and sanctions, before it inflicts further significant and avoidable hardship on children, adults and families across our district. It is a social contract in this country that social security should be there for all of us should we need it at any point in our lives, but the Government’s draconian Universal Credit and its target-driven sanctions regime is driving people into crisis compounded by the wider impact of its interminable austerity programme.

ACTION:        Chief Executive