A MAJOR review into poverty across the district has put forward a 22-point action plan for helping the poorest in society.

The plan, which includes measures like offering people basic cooking instructions and encouraging them to use credit unions instead of payday lenders, will now go to bosses at Bradford Council for consideration.

The review process began in July 2014, when the authority’s corporate overview and scrutiny committee decided it wanted to conduct a wide-ranging investigation into poverty levels across the district.

The committee has now published its findings.

It's report says: “There is lots of valuable, but disjointed pieces of work taking place across the district to address poverty across all areas in the district.

“This scrutiny review aims to bring all these areas of work together to make both the council’s and partners’ response to poverty more robust and outcome-focused.”

The review says Bradford is among the UK’s most deprived districts, with demand for foodbanks and soup kitchens outstripping their capacity to grow.

Household debt levels are higher than average, as are levels of fuel poverty and child poverty.

It calls on Bradford Council to follow the lead of authorities which have drawn up a poverty strategy, with a councillor and an officer appointed as ‘poverty champions’ to oversee the work.

It says while there are 13 food banks operating in the district, none are open outside of working hours, which could prevent the working poor from accessing them.

It says many users of food banks “lack basic cooking skills and the kitchen equipment required”, and suggests people should also be given instructions on how to cook food like pasta.

The report says about 71,000 people of working age in the district have no qualifications and has asked the council’s employment and skills team to set out how it plans to remedy this.

Committee chairman, Councillor Arshad Hussain will also write to the Government setting out local charities’ concerns about a sanctions system under which people can have benefits stopped or suspended.

The report warns the sanctions can last up to three years, leaving claimants with no income.

The report will be considered by the council’s decision-making Executive in the weeks to come.