50 per cent of London's children live in poverty

from This Is London

Joe Murphy, Political Editor

A stinging indictment of poverty and social breakdown in London was issued today by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith.

It found that half the children in London live below the poverty line and that the gulf between rich and poor is widening.Crime is three times higher in the most dangerous boroughs than in the safest. And unemployment runs at almost 50 per cent in the poorest areas.

The findings come in Breakthrough London, the latest report into social decay by Mr Duncan Smith's think tank, the Centre For Social Justice. It linked social breakdown to severe pockets of poverty, highlighting that in some parts of the capital six in 10 households are headed by a single parent.

The findings will be a hot debating point for the leading mayoral candidates at an SCJ hustings on Wednesday night.

The former Conservative leader said the mayoral race was a chance to tackle the five linked main causes of poverty: family breakdown, worklessness, educational failure, addiction and debt.

"London is a tale of two cities," he said. "There will always be some level of disparity between areas in the city, but the current extent is unacceptable."

The report says that despite London's status as the sixth- richest city on earth, growing numbers of residents are left behind. Salaries in inner London averaged £45,000 a year - 80 per cent above the national average - yet the same area contained seven of the 20 most deprived local authorities in England.

A quarter of the capital's 650,000 children lived below the poverty line. This rose to half in the inner zone.

The report also found massive variations in education. Only 22 per cent of pupils in Islington obtained five good GCSE passes, compared with 75 per cent in Kensington and Chelsea, while in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, one in four people have no qualifications at all.

The number of single-parent households was 65 per cent above the national average. Six in 10 Newham homes were headed by lone parents. Only 45 per cent of lone parents in London were in jobs.

Youth unemployment in London was 20 per cent, well above other regions.

In Hackney, Newham, Westminster and Tower Hamlets, four in 10 households had nobody working in them.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Success

• London's economy is bigger than Sweden or Switzerland, valued at $452 billion.

• By 2020 it will be the fourth largest city economy in the world.

• With 12% of the UK population, it contributes 19% of national earnings.

• The Square Mile produces 4% of GDP.

• Take-home pay is 45 per cent more on average.

Failure

• Tower Hamlets, Newham and Hackney are three of England's most deprived areas.

• In Inner London, half of all children are in poverty.

• A baby boy has a life expectancy of 74.9 years if born in Islington and 83.1 years if born in Kensington and Chelsea.

• In Tower Hamlets 47.4 per cent of adults are not in work and a quarter have no qualifications.