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Two county councillors have clashed over the root causes of child poverty – with one suggesting that poorer families should be taught how to better manage their money and another insisting that they just needed more of it in the first place.

Andrew Gardiner, the Conservative representative for Heysham, said that it was important to break cycles of deprivation between generations – but added that it was also crucial for families to have control over their cash.

“I spoke with a Labour councillor who worked with the poor in Morecambe…and she said that they need education in how to manage money.

“That was from a Labour councillor, not from me – and she explained several cases [she had dealt with].

County councillors Matthew Tomlinson and Andrew Gardiner

“If you take the minimum wage in Burnley, you can probably rent a house for £400 – and then you go to other parts of Lancashire, [it’s] maybe £900. Yet the poorer area is Burnley – I believe a lot of it comes back to education,” County Cllr Gardiner told Lancashire County Council’s children’s services scrutiny committee.

But Labour’s Matthew Tomlinson tore into his colleague’s assessment of poverty.

“If there isn’t enough money, there isn’t enough money. I know people who work full time on minimum wage and they cannot afford to make ends meet – and something has gone wrong when that happens,” said County Cllr Tomlinson, who represents Leyland Central.

Row over whether Lancashire families in poverty need "education in how to manage money"