Map shows East London 'worst area for child poverty'

The campaign’s child poverty map of Britain, which gives a breakdown by parliamentary constituency, local authority and ward, shows that Prime Minister David Cameron’s constituency in Witney is in one of the ten lowest areas of the country for child poverty (7 per cent), along with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s constituency in Sheffield Hallam (5 per cent).

They are included in a group of 89 constituencies that already meet the headline target for 2020 by having child poverty rates of 10 per cent or lower.

However, on average throughout the UK one in five children are now classified as living below the poverty line.

The map is based on an analysis of tax credit data by the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University and provides the closest measure available of local levels of child poverty, the report’s authors say.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies has predicted that present Government policies will lead to a rise in child poverty and that any progress made towards the target to end child poverty by 2020 will be lost with 400,000 more children in poverty by 2015.

In Bethnal Green and Bow 51 per cent of children are in poverty and in 19 constituencies at least four in ten children are in poverty.

Across the UK these areas include constituencies in Birmingham, Liverpool, Belfast and Manchester, and in London Islington, Hackney and Camden.

Alison Garnham, executive director of the campaign, said, ‘The child poverty map paints a stark picture of a socially segregated Britain where the life chances of millions of children are damaged by poverty and inequality. But it also gives us reason for hope.

‘The child poverty target has already been met in the Prime Minister’s constituency and nearly a hundred others, so never let it be said that the targets are impossible to meet. If we can do it in Witney today, we can do it in Hackney tomorrow.’

She added that the Government needed ‘a serious plan’ to stop the rise in unemployment and ‘to target investment through the family purse to stimulate the economy.’

‘Child poverty costs us billions picking up the pieces of damaged lives and unrealised potential, so it’s a false economy if we don’t prioritise looking after children today.

‘Targeting cuts on families will prove both an economic and a social disaster, with businesses losing billions of pounds of demand and families struggling to keep their kids clothed, fed and warm, ‘she said.

Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children, said, ‘We should not accept child poverty as a fact of life – as a country we know we have the potential to do this, if we make it a high enough priority.