Moussa Haddad, Oxfam's Sustainable Livelihoods policy officer for UK Poverty, penned his reaction to today's pre-budget report. First published on the Oxfam news blog, here it is again.

It's over to you, Darling

Today's pre-Budget report was a big opportunity for the government to boost the economy and fight poverty in the same breath. Judged through that prism, the approach they took has much to commend it.

The decision to cut the rate of VAT is good news for people living in poverty in the UK. VAT is a hugely regressive tax: the poorest 10 per cent pay more than three times as much of their income in VAT as do the richest 10 per cent. So a cut in VAT passes the test of putting money in the pockets of people who need it most.

The plan to take some of this money back through a new top rate of income tax is a progressive one. Similarly, promises to crack down on tax havens are long overdue. This can bring in much-needed revenue that is levied but not collected from some of the richest people in the country, who are not paying their share. We hope that this is the first step of a strategic rethinking of tax. The tax system in 2008 does not work particularly well for people living in poverty. Today's proposals are a step in the right direction, and something to build upon in years to come.

But this is also an opportunity missed. Most of all, in the failure to commit the £2.8 billion needed to meet the 2010 target to halve child poverty. In the context of the size of Alistair Darling's fiscal package - and especially compared to the sums found for the bank bailouts - this is not a huge amount of money. The tax cuts on offer today will help, as will the increase in Child Tax Credits. Still, it feels like the government is quietly trying to push child poverty into the long grass of the 2020 commitment.

This was presented as a crisis pre-Budget report. Yet the high profile of the financial and economic crises doesn't change the fact that this has been a year of soaring prices. The cut in VAT does nothing to mitigate the food and energy price crisis of 2008 that has hit the poorest households of Britain the hardest. Prices are finally starting to come down, but a one-off extension of the Winter Fuel Payment to all people on benefits and tax credits would have done much to help poor people to heat their houses this winter. Benefit levels should have gone up immediately to make sure poor people could eat today.

We mustn't be too churlish, though. There is a lot of good in this set of measures that will help people in poverty and people at risk of poverty. It is also pleasing that the government sees for itself a strong role in protecting people from the vagaries of economic tides. The key is in the follow-through. Today's measures were progressive -as they should be after a boom that has barely touched poverty levels while seeing the incomes of the well-off soar. If that approach is continued, we can hope for growth - when it arrives - that is more equitably shared and built on sounder economic foundations. Or we could see VAT back at 17.5 per cent in a year's time, talk of crack-downs on tax havens abandoned, and child poverty targets vanishing further over the horizon. Mr Darling, it's over to you.