Southwark Council Unveils Ambitious Plan to Combat High Child Poverty Rates

Southwark Council has unveiled an ambitious plan to combat the borough's high child poverty rates, aiming to make Southwark a more affordable and equitable place to live. The Council Assembly meeting on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, saw the adoption of a new vision for the borough, which acknowledges significant challenges including child poverty affecting 43.3% of families after housing costs – a rate among the highest in the country, driving families out of the borough.

The plan, outlined in the motion Affordable, Safe, and Green: The Joint Administration's ambitions for Southwark [1], aims to address the cost of living crisis, increase access to good jobs and affordable homes, and reduce inequality.

To tackle the cost of living crisis, the council has launched a new programme for providing uniforms for families in need. Furthermore, community councils and one-stop shops are set to return, and a major borough-wide budget participation campaign will ensure residents' voices shape the council's financial decisions. The motion resolves to Become a borough we can afford by ensuring that residents in Southwark find it easier to afford everyday essentials and more young people are in good and sustainable jobs and training.

Within the next four years, the council intends to Tackle the housing crisis by building more council homes, ensuring council tenants and leaseholders are satisfied with the service they receive, and reducing the number of void properties and the length of time properties are empty. While concrete targets for job creation and housing are not explicitly detailed in the provided text, the commitment to increasing good and sustainable jobs and training and building more council homes forms the basis of the strategy.

The council is committed to developing a full Borough Action Plan over the next four years, with a focus on ensuring Southwark is a place where residents can grow up and grow old well.

Implementing this plan faces several challenges. These include the aforementioned high child poverty rates, the impacts of climate breakdown such as rising temperatures and flooding, and a significant housing crisis with 23,000 households on the social housing waiting list and 4,200 in temporary accommodation. Safety is also a concern, with 41% of residents not feeling safe at night. Additionally, Southwark faces a funding gap of £102 million and a plateaued recycling rate with persistent fly-tipping issues. A low level of resident influence in local decision-making and difficulties contacting the council are also noted challenges.

To address these issues, the council has challenged the government to demand more support for the funding gap and worked with other councils to fight for a fair deal. The return of community councils and one-stop shops, alongside the budget participation campaign, are key strategies to empower residents and improve council responsiveness. The shared priorities for the plan were shaped by conversations on the doorstep, from community organisations, representations in the town hall, and through casework. The council aims to be a council that listens, and that residents can shape, with community councils enabling residents to genuinely shape their local areas.

The motion Affordable, Safe, and Green: The Joint Administration's ambitions for Southwark can be found in the Public reports pack Wednesday 23 September 2026.

[1] The motion Affordable, Safe, and Green: The Joint Administration's ambitions for Southwark is part of the Public reports pack Wednesday 23 September 2026.