Twice as many children living in poverty in north Warrington as south

The statistics, published by the Campaign to End Child Poverty, show 19 per cent of children in the Warrington North parliamentary constituency live in poverty with the figures for Warrington South was 10 per cent.

Overall in the town, 14 per cent of children are living in poverty - making Warrington one of the lowest towns in the north west.

Manchester topped the table with 40 per cent with the Ribble Valley the lowest, at six per cent.

Alison Garnham, Executive Director of the Campaign, said: “The government must act urgently to prevent a rise in child poverty.

“There simply aren’t enough jobs in the north west and too many jobs that do exist have poor pay and conditions.

“The situation is being made worse by cuts to benefits and tax credits, which means too much of the burden of deficit reduction is being put unfairly onto families in those regions where unemployment is highest and low pay is a widespread problem.”

Warrington North MP Helen Jones said: “This report makes it clear that the Tory-led Government’s measures are hitting families with children hard and are increasing child poverty.

"Child poverty fell to its lowest level since the 1980s under Labour and it is an outrage to see it increasing thanks to this Government.

“Current measures in the Local Government Finance Bill that is being debated this week will also increase child poverty further.

"By devolving control over Council Tax Benefit to local authorities and cutting the budget by 10% families with children will be hit the hardest.

"Pensioners are being protected from the cuts which means that others will face a larger cut.

“The cuts in Council Tax Benefit will fall on families with children and the working poor.

“This is another blow to families trying to do the right thing and will increase their council tax bill further.”

Warrington South MP David Mowat said: “The picture in Warrington is mixed.

"Overall, the figures compare well to most of our neighbouring authorities – a tribute to the work that has been done by councils of both colours.

"However, there are still pockets of child poverty in areas like Bewsey, showing that we cannot afford to be complacent and that more needs to be done.

“Clearly, we’d all rather that the figures were lower, but this is not a problem that has occurred overnight and it won’t be solved overnight either.

"The last government made some admirable progress on reducing levels of child poverty and it is important that, despite the state of the public finances, the Coalition Government keeps this momentum going.

"Measures such as the Pupil Premium and free nursery places for the poorest two year olds will help achieve that.”

The ward by ward figures in Warrington are: l Appleton 5 per cent.

l Bewsey and Whitecross 30 per cent.

l Birchwood 19 per cent.

l Burtonwood and Winwick 9 per cent.

l Culcheth, Glazebury and Croft 7 per cent.

l Fairfield and Howley 25 per cent.

l Grappenhall and Thelwall 6 per cent.

l Great Sankey North 5 per cent.

l Great Sankey South 11 per cent.

l Hatton, Stretton and Walton 4 per cent.

l Latchford East 26 per cent.

l Latchford West 15 per cent.

l Lymm 7 per cent.

l Orford 28 per cent.

l Penketh and Cuerdley 7 per cent.

l Poplars and Hulme 31 per cent.

l Poulton North 24 per cent.

l Poulton South 5 per cent.

l Rixton and Woolston 7 per cent.

l Stockton Heath 5 per cent.

l Westbrook 4 per cent.

l Whittle Hall 6 per cent.

The figures are estimates for mid 2011 and according to the authors, uses tax credit data to give the percentage of children on low incomes in local authorities, parliamentary constituencies and wards across the UK.

They also use regional trends in worklessness to estimate recent changes in the number of children who are in poverty because their parents have lost their jobs, to update the local tax credit data which is more than two years old.

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