The End Child Poverty coalition published figures providing a new child poverty map of the UK. The new figures reveal that there are now constituencies within the UK where more than half of children are growing up in poverty – compared to one in ten, in the areas with the lowest child poverty rates.
The figures also show that some of the most deprived areas of the UK have seen the biggest increases in child poverty since the coalition's last local child poverty figures for December 2015. Increases of 10 percentage points in some areas demonstrate the growing crisis of child poverty in the UK.
The local child poverty estimates are broken down by parliamentary constituency, local authority and ward. Child poverty is the highest in large cities, particularly in London, Birmingham and Manchester. Among the twenty parliamentary constituencies with the highest levels of childhood poverty, seven are located in London, three in Birmingham, and three in Manchester.
On the issue of child poverty, Navin Shah AM, London Assembly Member for Brent and Harrow said, “It's sad and frustrating to hear that around a third of children in our capital are growing up in poverty. These statistics, published by the End Child Poverty coalition, are yet another damning indictment of the Government'd punitive agenda of cuts to welfare and its failure to address the cost of living crisis. Worryingly, in Harrow, figures show that 31.69% of children are growing up beneath the breadline. It is a disgrace that families in our community are unable to afford basic provisions to feed or clothe their children. The Government says that work is the best route out of poverty, yet in London, 58% of those in poverty are from working families.”
Navin Shah added, “I support calls from the End Child Poverty coalition for the Government to end its policy of freezing children's benefits until 2020 to alleviate the burgeoning costs of living in London. With ever-increasing rents further stretching the budgets of families living in private rented accommodation, one of the clear solutions to help children out of poverty is to build more council housing. We need the government to start acting now to eradicate inequalities leading to child poverty. The delivery of genuine council homes at social rent would be a good place to start.”
