The Northern Echo Manifesto calls on the main political parties to commit to reducing child poverty in the North East and outline how they will do so.

Recent horrifying reports from the North East Child Poverty Commission have outlined how the situation in the region is getting worse.

One in three babies, children and young people across the North East are growing up in poverty - and the area has experienced one of the steepest increases in child poverty rates over much of the last decade.

The North East has tens of thousands of children who qualify for free school meals, Universal Credit, the lowest wages of anywhere in the UK, the highest proportion of children living in workless households and the country's highest rates of food insecurity.

Amanda Bailey, director of the North East Child Poverty Commission, said: "We all want a North East in which every child has the support they need to thrive – but the reality is that tens of thousands of kids growing up in our region are having their current and future opportunities restricted by all the barriers that poverty and hardship bring. This cannot be right in what remains one of the largest economies in the world.

"Any Prime Minister serious about improving the living standards and life chances of children in our region must make tackling child poverty an urgent and ongoing priority for their Government. This means committing to a new national child poverty strategy that cuts across Government departments, and recognises that investing in children and young people is fundamental to the future of both our region and our country.

"As a first step, this should include ending the ‘two-child limit’ policy, which we know has significantly driven up child poverty rates across the country – and now affects one in eight of all children growing up in the North East.

"It must include a guarantee that the National Living Wage, and Universal Credit, will always ensure families – both in and out of work – can at least afford the essentials, but which every food bank and charity supporting families across the North East knows they are currently failing to do.

"And it should, as a priority, expand the reach of free school meals – the current threshold for which every school and college across the region will confirm is far too low."