'This is a crisis that not only undermines the potential of our youngest residents but threatens the long-term wellbeing of our community'

NEWPORT WARD COUNCILLORS ON 'APPALLING' AND 'HORRENDOUS' POVERTY STATISTICS

- By DAVID DUBAS-FISHER, DANIEL HODGSON

A MIDDLESBROUGH ward has the highest levels of child poverty in the entire country, new figures show.

Newport ward sees 85% of its children living in poverty, figures from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) for the year ending March 2024 show.

It is far and away the worst affected ward in the entire country, with six in seven kids living below the breadline, compared to less than three quarters in the second most affected ward in the UK, which is the Manningham area in Bradford which has 72% of children living in poverty.

Middlesbrough's Central ward ranks eighth highest in the country, and is the second worst affected ward in Teesside, with more than two out of every three kids living in poverty, while North Ormesby is the third and final ward in Teesside to see more than half of its children living below the breadline, at a level of 54%.

At the other end of the spectrum, Nunthorpe ward is least affected by child poverty in Middlesbrough, at a rate of 7%. Nationally, 22% of kids live in poverty.

It was reported that in the year ending March 2024, 4.5m children were found to be living in relative poverty, an increase of 121,000 on the year before.

The statistics reflect the last full year under the Conservative government, with the Labour government elected in July last year.

The new government has been accused of not doing enough to fix the stark poverty problems faced in areas such as Teesside.

Local politicians were asked about the current state of affairs and were specifically asked if they supported removing the two-child benefit cap, a move which has been advocated by MPs including Andy McDonald, but also organisations such as the End Child Poverty Coalition, who say that ending the two-child limit to benefit payments would lift 300,000 children out of poverty nationally.