Gordon Brown's drive to end child poverty can only be achieved by ending the "appalling" housing conditions of the poorest children, the director of housing charity Shelter said this week.

Speaking after Brown's keynote conference speech, Adam Sampson told a fringe meeting that, although he welcomed the chancellor's drive to eradicate child poverty, children living in overcrowded and unfit housing would not benefit from Brown's proposals for increased home ownership.

He said: "The drive for home ownership will not lift them out of poor housing conditions. There's no way they will become the highly skilled citizens Gordon Brown envisages for the future."

He told the meeting that social housing supplies had been "choked" by a lack of investment.