Charity publishes local authority child poverty figures

For the first time the charity Save the Children has provided a local authority breakdown of child poverty figures around the country which show 1.6 million children live in poverty.

Manchester has the highest proportion of children living in severe child poverty in the UK with 27 per cent. The London borough of Tower Hamlets is a close second while Newham comes third.

In 29 local authorities across the country more than one in five children lives in severe poverty.

Within the UK, Wales has the highest proportion of children living in severe poverty nationwide (14 per cent), followed by England (13 per cent) then Scotland and Northern Ireland (9 per cent each).

The worst-affected English regions are London (18 per cent), followed by the West Midlands (16 per cent), and the North West (15 per cent).

With increasing unemployment and cuts in welfare payments, Save the Children fears that even more children will be forced into severe poverty in the coming months without urgent and concerted action.

“Children up and down the country are going to sleep at night in homes with no heating, without eating a proper meal and without proper school uniforms to put on in the morning,” said Sally Copley, Save the Children's head of UK policy. “No child should be born without a chance. It’s a national scandal that 1.6 million children are growing up in severe poverty.”

The charity is calling on the Chancellor to announce an emergency plan in the next budget to:
•channel new jobs into the poorest areas
•increase financial support for low-income families, for example, by paying for more childcare costs enabling parents to work

“If the government is to fulfil its commitments on child poverty, it must find a way of counting children in greatest need,” Copley continued. “At the moment, these children are hidden from official view, and their plight unrecognised. If these children are to have a future, we must acknowledge their desperate need and urgently target government help towards them.”

Ten local authority areas with the highest levels of severe child poverty
1. Manchester 27 per cent
2. Tower Hamlets 27 per cent
3. Newham 25 per cent
4. Leicester 24 per cent
5. Westminster 24 per cent
6. Nottingham 23 per cent
7. Liverpool 23 per cent
8. Birmingham 23 per cent
9. Blackpool 22 per cent
10. Hackney 22 per cent