It really troubles me that we’ve got children living in workless households and living in poverty wherever they live, whether that be in a Communities First area or elsewhere. And it’s not always a class issue—this can happen to any communities and any individual.

It is an ambition of this Government to tackle the issue around poverty, and that’s why we are looking at reviewing all of our programmes and interventions, to make sure that we tackle the people that need, in a way that we can deliver with our programmes that we are investing in. It doesn’t given me any pleasure to say that those numbers are stubborn. But there’s nothing wrong with any Government with ambition seeking to make those changes.