PPC Profile: Kate Green

Full Name: Kate Green

Age: 49

From: I live in Davyhulme, Urmston – I’m originally from Edinburgh where I was born and grew up.

PPC for: Stretford and Urmston

Website: www.kategreen.org

Selection Result: 70/60 after 5 rounds

Member of the Labour Party since: 1990

CV:

I was Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group from 2004-2009, and before that Director of the National Council for One Parent Families (now Gingerbread). I’ve also worked in the Home Office.

I’ve had an active career in public life. I served as a Magistrate from 1993 -2009, and I’m a past trustee of Friends Provident Foundation, Institute for Fiscal Studies, Family and Parenting Institute, The Avenues Youth Project and End Child Poverty.

I was a Member of the National Employment Panel, advising ministers on the New Deal and labour market policy, and on policies to help get more parents into paid work. From 2006-2009, I was a member, then Chair, of the London Child Poverty Commission.

I’ve previous experience as a Parliamentary candidate (in Cities of London and Westminster in 1997) and as GLA candidate for West London in 2000.

I was inspired to go into politics because:

I started out my working life in the 1980s, just as the effects of Thatcherism were beginning to bite. I was shocked at the destruction of industries, jobs and communities that it brought in its wake. I saw young people homeless on the streets, families fearful for the future, and a confrontational, unhappy society. That drove me to join the Labour Party, determined that everyone should have a decent chance, and to fight the damage that Tory policies were doing to ordinary working people.

My main policy interests are: families and children, employment, and support for the vulnerable, marginalised and excluded. In my roles at CPAG and One Parent Families, I campaigned for family incomes and for services to support parents and children – Sure Start, childcare and tax credits to boost family incomes, and for decent jobs. Good quality public services matter to all of us, and here in Stretford and Urmston I’m campaigning so that people in our part of the borough get the top quality services they’re entitled to, and for our communities to be properly looked after.

As magistrate, I saw firsthand how crime and antisocial behaviour blight people’s lives, how young people can be drawn into crime – and the policies that can help them turn their lives around. Working together to improve our communities, I know we can make a difference to everybody’s lives.

Three things I think should be in the next Labour manifesto are:

1 – Good quality jobs for all. Our employment policies over the past decade have had a big impact on employment, especially lone parent employment. We’ve strengthened rights at work, and the minimum wage is one of Labour’s most popular and successful policies, ensuring work pays for more people. When the recession hit, the government rightly prioritised protecting and creating jobs, especially for young people. As we move into recovery, we need to give attention to the sustainability and quality of jobs. That means investing in skills, training and working with employers to open up access to good jobs to local people, and help them to progress at work.

2 – Support for families, children and older people. We’ve done a lot to increase family incomes and those of pensioners, and I’m proud of our record in reducing child and pensioner poverty, but there’s more to do. We need to ensure that work’s always a route out of poverty, and that everyone has an adequate income. We should invest more in child benefit and tax credits, and restore the earnings link for pensioners.

3 – Protecting public services. We must guarantee investment in Sure Start and childcare for all, and in extended schools. We must make sure that educational and extra curricular activities reach all our children, including those with special needs, older children, and those from the poorest families. Maintaining investment in the health service and introducing a National Care Service to ensure that no one who’s sick or needs care need worry about whether they’d get treatment, or how they’d afford to pay.

I think people should vote for me because:

I’ll bring all my experience, energy and commitment to bear on improving the lives of everyone in our community. I’ll be accountable to the people of Stretford and Urmston, and they will always come first for me. I’m determined to ensure everyone has access to the best opportunities, the best support when they need it, and the best public services, and I’ll always fight for them.

I’ve got nearly 30 years of experience of doing “real” jobs, and of campaigning from my previous roles at CPAG and One Parent Families – I know how to get things done. I am passionate, energetic, and totally committed to equality and the eradication of poverty – and in a country as rich as ours, I know it can be achieved.