Capital tops poverty league for England

London has the highest poverty rate of any region in England,
with children and pensioners worst affected, according to
government figures out this month.

The Department for Work and Pensions report for 2001
Households Below Average Income, which relates to 1999-00,
shows that 29 per cent of London’s population lives below the
poverty line.

Almost half – 43 per cent – of children in the capital live
below the poverty line, compared to an English average of 32 per
cent. And 30 per cent of London’s pensioners, compared with 25 per
cent nationally, live in poverty.

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said: “It is particularly
shocking that in 2001, 43 per cent of children and 30 per cent of
pensioners living in London should be living in poverty.

“Resources need to be directed towards the specific problems of
deprivation and social exclusion in the capital.”