Almost all children in 73 areas of England live in low-income households

A Deepening Crisis: Child Poverty in 73 English Neighborhoods

In a sobering revelation from newly recalculated deprivation indices, nearly all children in 73 neighborhoods across England are now living in income-deprived households.

This marks a dramatic shift in the landscape of child poverty, driven by the inclusion of soaring housing costs, particularly rent, into official poverty measures.

The updated indices of multiple deprivation, which assess areas based on income, employment, education, health, crime, housing access, and environment, have exposed the stark reality that previous efforts to “level up” deprived regions have failed to make meaningful progress.

Among the most affected areas are 31 neighborhoods located in inner London boroughs such as Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Haringey, and Westminster. These districts, long burdened by high housing costs, now show near-total child income deprivation.

For instance, in Stamford Hill, Hackney, the proportion of children living in low-income households surged from 8.9% in 2019 to a staggering 99.9% in 2025. This recalibration has shifted the epicenter of child poverty from northern cities like Liverpool and Middlesbrough to the capital, reframing the issue as a London-centric crisis.

The broader picture is equally alarming. In 2019, no neighborhood had more than 90% of children living in income deprivation. By 2025, that number has ballooned to 280 neighborhoods, with 73 of them showing rates of 99% or higher.

These areas are typically small, with an average population of 1,500, yet they represent micro-pockets of extreme hardship. Welfare policies such as the two-child benefit cap and housing benefit limits, combined with unaffordable rents, are believed to be key drivers of this intensifying deprivation.

The implications of this shift are profound. The new deprivation index is set to influence a revised council funding formula expected in November.

While the government had previously promised to redirect resources from affluent southeastern regions to the Midlands and North, the updated data could complicate that plan. London authorities may now receive increased support, reflecting long-standing concerns about housing affordability, while northern councils fear losing out.

Jaywick in Essex, part of Nigel Farage’s Clacton constituency, remains the most deprived neighborhood in England for the fourth consecutive time. Alongside Margate Town, it is one of only two areas ranked in the bottom 10% across all seven deprivation measures.

Coastal towns continue to struggle, although 82% of them have seen slight improvements in their rankings since 2019. Still, entrenched deprivation persists in places like central Rochdale, Ayresome in Middlesbrough, and Bidston Hill in Wirral, which have consistently ranked among the most deprived since 2004.

There are glimmers of hope in areas undergoing regeneration. The Nine Elms development in Lambeth, home to the new US embassy and a tube station opened in 2021, has seen its deprivation rank improve dramatically, from the bottom 20% to the top 10%. Yet such transformations are rare and often tied to significant investment and gentrification.

Alison McGovern, Labour’s minister for local government and homelessness, responded to the findings by highlighting the party’s recent investments: £500 million in children’s development and £1 billion in crisis support. She described the statistics as a “damning indictment” of a broken system that has left communities fractured, councils financially strained, and residents facing severe service cuts.

The data underscores the urgency of the government’s forthcoming child poverty strategy, which has been long delayed amid rising hardship.

This recalibrated deprivation index not only paints a more accurate picture of poverty in England but also raises pressing questions about policy priorities, resource allocation, and the long-term prospects for children growing up in these deeply disadvantaged communities.