POVERTY is "scarring" British cities, with around half of children in some urban areas living below the breadline, figures indicated today.

To coincide with a day of action on child poverty, Save the Children has released a list of constituencies with the worst rates of child poverty in the UK.

Inner city areas top the list - which was compiled using data from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation - with more than half of children in Manchester Central described as living in poverty.

Liverpool Riverside and Poplar and Canning Town - second and third in the list - showed child poverty rates approaching the 50 per cent mark, double the national average.

Colette Marshall, UK director of Save the Children, said: "Despite the boom in affluence, illustrated by ever-rising house prices, these figures show that cities remain the places most scarred by poverty.

"Families are struggling to cope - especially during winter when the weather turns cold and the bills are high and the financial demands on families become unbearable."

Urgent

"Without urgent action this year the government will fail to meet its own target to end child poverty by 2020."

Save the Children is calling on the Government to introduce seasonal grants to help families at the most difficult times of the year.

The charity estimated that the additional handouts would lift 440,000 children out of poverty.

Louise Ellman, MP for Liverpool Riverside, said: "Seven hundred thousand children have been lifted out of relative poverty since 1997 but it is clear that much more needs to be done.

"We must expand opportunities for education and training and ensure families and children do not fall below the breadline.

"The government must keep their commitment to eradicating child poverty by 2020."

Figures showed that in both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's constituencies, just under a quarter of children are living in poverty, in line with the national average.

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