Gordon Brown must make the case for greater redistribution of wealth under a third-term government if he is to meet his target of halving child poverty by 2010, according to the Fabian Society.

Forum Response: Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Donald Hirsch, special adviser to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: "The Budget will bring in a further substantial increase in child tax credit rates for the poorest groups. This is an encouraging sign that even when the public finances are relatively tight, a commitment to reducing child poverty is being sustained.

"The past five years have  marked a historic change both in the public commitment to tackling  poverty and in the actual trend, which is now steadily downwards.

"What will it take to ensure that this period does not prove a short-lived exception rather than the start of a long-term move away  from child poverty?

"First of all, a recognition that the challenge ahead  is a tough one. Joseph Rowntree Foundation research shows that around  half of the recent fall in child poverty rates is attributable to  growing employment rates, and such growth will be hard to sustain  indefinitely. Therefore incomes of people in low-paid jobs and on  benefits will need to rise faster than average incomes if relative poverty is to keep falling.

"Continuing to increase tax credits as in this Budget will help. But a further influence will be pay at the lower end of the labour market. Today's announcement of an eight per cent rise in the  minimum wage is encouraging. A lot more attention needs to be paid to  job quality and productivity among lower-paid workers if we want a  long-term plan to eliminate poverty to be sustainable without unacceptably high income transfers."