Joseph Rowntree Trust Report On Rich And Poor

EDM number 1937 in 2006-07, proposed by Bob Russell on 17/07/2007.

That this House is appalled that the gap between rich and poor has widened to the biggest it has been in 40 years according to a report from the Joseph Rowntree Trust; is alarmed that the number of poor households has grown over the past 15 years, with households in already wealthy areas becoming disproportionately richer compared with society as a whole; notes that wealth patterns over the past four decades showed that the gap between rich and poor narrowed in the 1970s but that inequality increased during the 1980s and 1990s with a polarisation in British society; recognises that, since 2000, initiatives such as tax and pension credit have helped the poor although wealthier people have gained from the property boom; and calls on the Government to take firm measures to halt the widening gap between rich and poor.

This motion has been signed by a total of 37 MPs.