London has England’s highest levels of child poverty, data shows | Poverty
Data has revealed that London has the UK’s highest child poverty and most extreme concentrations of hardship. More than half of the children in two districts live below the subsistence level.
Child poverty rates in Britain remained stable in 2024-25 compared to the previous year. Approximately 4 million youth (27%) live in households earning less than 60% of the national median income when housing costs are taken into account.
In effect, these figures provide a reference point for the government’s stance. child poverty reduction strategyIt will start in earnest next month with the removal of the two-child benefit limit. It aims to lift 550,000 children out of poverty by 2029.
Work and Pensions Minister Pat McFadden said rising household incomes and a slight fall in food insecurity rates showed the government was “starting to make a difference” but there was more to do to reverse poverty.
An estimated 38% of children in London are in relative poverty, while the figure is 32% in north-west England and the West Midlands and 30% in the north-east. The South East had the lowest child poverty rate in England at 20.8%.
Poverty levels in London are driven by the housing crisis, experts have said. High rents have led to the highest level of material poverty in the UK; It’s a measure of a family’s inability to afford basic needs like a warm home or fresh fruit.
At a council level, the highest rates of child poverty in England were in three inner-city boroughs in east London: Tower Hamlets, where the rate was 50.3%, Hackney (50.1%) and Newham (44.9%).
Child poverty rates, measured by parliamentary electorate, were highest in Hackney North and Stoke Newington (60.2%), inner London counties where Diane Abbott is an MP.
Outside the capital, the highest rates are in Birmingham, where 115,000 children (44.9%) live in poverty, Pendle in Lancashire (42.5%) and Manchester (42.3%).
Of the UK’s overall child poverty rate of 27%, Wales recorded 32% of children aged 0-19 in poverty, followed by England at 29%, Scotland (21%) and Northern Ireland (19%).
Latest poverty statistics, Households Below Median Income reportIt used a new method designed to record a more accurate picture of household incomes since 2021-22.
Almost three-quarters of poor children live in households where at least one adult works, 40% of all people living below the subsistence line have a disability, and 2.8 million children are classed as living in “deep poverty” in households with incomes less than 40% of the poverty line.
Campaigners said data showed millions of people on low incomes were still struggling to afford basic needs such as food and energy. The use of food banks reached near record levels and many people continued to experience the trauma of poverty.
Peter Matejic, chief analyst at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “The latest statistics show that overall poverty has risen slightly and there has been little change in child poverty in the first year of a Labor government… The result is that too many families are still in poverty.”
The government hopes that removing the two-child allowance limit, as well as offering free school meals to all children in households receiving universal credit, will help reduce poverty, along with increases in the national living wage.
Sophie Livingstone, chief executive of the No Child Poverty Coalition, said: “Removing the two-child limit on benefits was a good start, but the UK government still has work to do to give children the best start in life.”
