NEARLY half of children in Birmingham and Manchester are growing up in relative poverty, according to new analysis.
A report by the Resolution Foundation, published today, has found that child poverty has widened in some areas and that the geographic location of hotspots has shifted.
Ten years ago, 19 of the 20 worst affected areas were in London, but by 2022-23, only three remained in the capital.
The rest are instead split between the West Midlands and north-west, where relative child poverty stands at 48 per cent in Birmingham and Manchester after housing costs.
It found a strong link between child poverty rates and areas with a high number of families affected by the two-child benefit limit.
Over five in 10 children in larger families of three or more children in the north-west and West Midlands were in relative poverty in 2022-23 — compared to four in 10 nationwide.
Although lifting the camp could free 490,000 children from poverty, the government has failed to do so, deeming it unaffordable and going as far as suspending seven Labour MPs who voted for an SNP motion calling for its end.
In its report, the Resolution Foundation also found that work has become easier to find in some areas historically affected by low employment.
In Tower Hamlets and Manchester, the employment rate has risen from around 50 to 70 per cent over the last 30 years.
Wage gaps between areas have also come down, primarily for the lowest earners, due to a rising minimum wage.
The pay gap between the lowest-paid workers in Basingstoke, one of the highest-paid areas, and Plymouth, one of the lowest, shrank to 3 per cent last year from 26 per cent in 1997.
It did however find that poor places have tended to remain poor and rich places rich, with average earnings per head in one of Britain’s wealthiest areas, Kensington and Chelsea, over four times higher than in Leicester, one of the poorest.
Resolution Foundation economist Charlie McCurdy said that one concern was that regional economic differences are deeply entrenched and that “the places that were doing worst in the late 1990s have generally continued to do so.
“The new government may have ditched the language of ‘levelling up’, but their growth agenda cannot be achieved without unlocking the potential of the UK’s second cities and raising living standards in all parts of the country.”
