Nearly half of all children in London, Birmingham and Manchester live in poverty

Charity Coalition End Child Poverty says a year-long benefit freeze is a major factor in an emerging crisis.

Almost half of all children in some UK cities are estimated to be living in poverty amid warnings that welfare reforms are leading to an “emerging child poverty crisis,” a new report reveals.

Figures published by the End Child Poverty coalition show that in the past two years the biggest increases in child poverty have occurred in areas already identified as deprivation hotspots.

Parts of London and Birmingham have seen levels rise by 10 percentage points to above half of all children.

In four parliamentary constituencies children are for the first time in recent years more likely than not to grow up poor. They are Bethnal Green and Bow, and Poplar and Limehouse in east London, and Ladywood and Hodge Hill in Birmingham.

The “shocking” figures have been attributed to the benefit freeze – which has been in place since 2015 and leaves children’s benefits frozen until the end of the decade – as well as the high cost of credit for low income families, leaving many “spiralling into debt”.

Sam Royston, the chair of End Child Poverty and the director of policy and research at the Children’s Society, said: “It is scandalous that a child born in some parts of the UK now has a greater chance of growing up in poverty, than being in a family above the breadline.”

Prof Donald Hirsch, of Loughborough University, who carried out the study, said it signalled hard times ahead for the poorest families in areas most reliant on benefits and tax credits. “Child poverty is going up tremendously in the next three years, and areas which have high dependency on the state income are going to be really, really hit.”

Debbie Abrahams, shadow secretary of state for work and pensions, said: “It is a damning indictment of this government’s policies that in some constituencies of the UK over half of children are living in poverty. Increasing child poverty is a direct result of this government’s utter failure to tackle the increasing cost of living, stagnating wages and their slashing of social security support.”

The End Child Poverty study is based on estimates of child poverty in different areas, calculated using HMRC data and the Labour Force Survey.

Dalia Ben-Galim, of the single parent charity Gingerbread, said: “Increasing levels of child poverty will continue to be the reality for many single parent families with the cost of living rising.”

The 25 local authorities with the highest percentage of children living in poverty is below.