UUP candidate Elizabeth Clarke calls for ‘fair deal’ as working families face mounting pressures

Speaking at Saturday’s UUP conference, Elizabeth Clarke MBE

Sunday 27 September 2026

Working families should not be left to absorb the cost when childcare, housing, education, transport and other public services fail to deliver, Ulster Unionist candidate Elizabeth Clarke MBE has told her party’s annual conference.

Clarke, who is standing as a second UUP candidate in South Antrim alongside MLA Steve Aiken, used her speech at Saturday’s conference to argue that pressures often treated separately by government are closely connected in the everyday lives of families.

Drawing on her own experience as a mother of five, she said rising household costs and difficulties accessing childcare, affordable housing, educational support and reliable transport could combine to leave people working hard but feeling they were making little progress.

Work should work

Clarke told delegates: “Working families aren’t asking for special treatment. They’re asking for a fair deal.”

She argued that taking additional work, seeking promotion or returning to employment after having children should not be undermined by the cost or availability of childcare and other practical barriers.

“If someone wants to work more, take a promotion or return after having children, we should help them do it, not put barriers in their way.

“That means affordable and accessible childcare. Roads and transport that get people where they need to go. Homes working people can realistically afford. And good jobs that allow people not simply to get by, but to get on.”

Clarke said the pressures surrounding employment could be just as important to a household as the amount appearing on a payslip.

Families absorbing the cost

Her central argument was that government too often considers work, childcare, housing, education and transport as separate policy areas, while families experience the consequences collectively.

“The childcare place that isn’t available becomes the shift you can’t take. The pothole becomes the repair bill. The housing shortage becomes another year paying rent. And usually, the family absorbs the cost.”

She added: “Because being Stronger Together should mean that when families do their part, the systems around them do theirs.”

Clarke also highlighted the experience of parents seeking additional educational support for their children, saying families should not have to become experts in navigating public systems to secure help.

“If your child needs additional support at school, you shouldn’t have to become an expert in the system just to secure it. If you rely on public transport to get to work, it needs to be reliable. If you’re paying your rates, you should see that reflected in your local community.”

Warning over cost of poverty

The South Antrim candidate also used her address to make the case for earlier intervention to prevent families reaching crisis point, arguing that the consequences of poverty ultimately create greater costs elsewhere in public services.

“Poverty doesn’t go away because we look past it. It just turns up somewhere more expensive: in a hospital ward, in a classroom, in a family that has stopped coping.”

She pointed to estimates from the Northern Ireland Audit Office on the wider societal cost of child poverty. Its 2024 report put the estimated annual cost at between £825 million and £1 billion, including the additional demands placed on public services and longer-term economic consequences.

Clarke said investment in housing, childcare, employability, transport and measures addressing fuel poverty should therefore be considered preventative as well as supportive.

“We need a strong safety net for those who need it, alongside good, well-paid jobs and support for those who can enter or return to work. A fair system recognises that people’s circumstances are different.”

Surplus wind energy highlighted

Energy was offered as an example of what Clarke described as the need for more practical solutions. She highlighted the amount of renewable electricity generated in Northern Ireland which cannot currently be used because of limitations within the electricity system.

Clarke told delegates: “In 2025, almost a quarter of available wind energy in Northern Ireland was curtailed, while EnergyCloud NI estimates that surplus wind energy with a retail value of around £204 million went unused.”

The £204 million estimate is supported by EnergyCloud NI, which says surplus renewable wind energy of that estimated retail value was wasted across Northern Ireland during 2025. Separate reporting has put Northern Ireland wind curtailment at around 24% for the year.

Clarke argued that technology should be explored to direct more surplus renewable electricity into homes, including providing free hot water at times when energy would otherwise go unused.

“That is the kind of practical thinking we need.

“That is what a Fair Deal for Working Families should mean.

“Rewarding work. Supporting opportunity. Providing a strong safety net for those who need it. And making sure that when families hit difficult times, the system helps them get back on their feet.”

‘Government pulling its weight’

Clarke said her decision to enter politics had been influenced by watching families work hard while still struggling to make progress.

“I didn’t come into politics because I had time on my hands. Nobody with five children does. I came into politics because I’ve watched families work hard, do the right thing and still feel as though they’re standing still.”

She said families working, raising children, caring for relatives, volunteering and supporting local businesses were already contributing to their communities.

“They hold our communities together. And if families are pulling their weight, they have every right to ask whether government is pulling its weight too.”

Concluding her conference address, Clarke argued that childcare, education, housing, transport and employment should be viewed as interconnected parts of the same challenge rather than separate policy problems.

“A Fair Deal for Working Families means childcare that works. Education that works. Housing people can afford. Transport that connects people with opportunity. And an economy where hard work is rewarded.

“Because stronger families build stronger communities. Stronger communities build a stronger economy. And a stronger economy helps us build a stronger Northern Ireland.”