t's just minutes away from one the biggest financial districts in the world yet it has the highest level of child poverty in the country. Poplar and Limehouse in the east London borough of Tower Hamlets is a modern day "tale of two cities". According to figures complied by charity End Child Poverty, the constituency tops the shameful league table with a concerning 58.5% of youngsters living in poverty once housing costs are included.t
Punitive welfare policies, low wages and soaring housing costs have pushed more and more families below the breadline. Since the Tories came to power in 2010 child poverty in the UK has soared by more half a million from 3.6 million to 4.1 million.
Poplar and Limehouse is also in the midst of gentrification which has resulted in a huge gulf between the rich and poor. There are multi-million pound homes saddled next to social housing. Because of its location next to Canary Wharf, home to high-earning bankers and other workers in the financial industry, the true deprivation and social economic woes can be skewed by figures such as the average wage in the borough.
James King is a councillor for Poplar and Limehouse and says housing is one of the biggest issues surrounding child poverty.
He told Mirror Online: "There is a crisis going on with child poverty. I've been involved with politics for 10 years now and I have seen how the area has changed through gentrification but the child poverty remains the same. Child poverty has been an issue in Tower Hamlets as a borough for a very long time. We have some of the richest people in London living next door to some of the poorest. Housing in the private sector here is becoming more and more unaffordable but people still need to live around here because it's their community - their jobs are here, their families are here. But because housing is so unaffordable people are living in overcrowded conditions and that leads together issues such as damp that causes health issues."
According to the council, there are more than 20,000 households on their housing list but they grant just 1,800 tenancies a year.
Research by the council into Universal Credit found that so many residents were struggling to make ends meet that they set up a £6.6miliion poverty fund to help plug the gap. Out of the funds, £1m was ring-fenced for the most vulnerable families facing waits of up to five week for any money as they switched to Universal Credit.
Universal Credit has been identified as one of the biggest causes of poverty in the borough.
Tower Hamlets Mayor John Biggs said: "Universal Credit has made serious problems for families."
Deputy Mayor Rachael Blake, commented, "It is driving people into further poverty and debt and the housing costs..."
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