By Tess Rushin

An area of Ashby de la Zouch has the lowest proportion of children deemed to be living in poverty throughout Leicestershire, new figures show.

Just three per cent of children in the neighbourhood of Ashby Castle were considered to be in that category last year.

That is the lowest proportion from any ward in Leicestershire.

But the county was not without areas of deprivation, with three Loughborough wards also seeing a third or more of their youngsters meeting the threshold.

Three in five children are now classed as living in poverty in Leicester's most deprived neighbourhood, Government figures show. 

The new statistics also reveal stark differences between poverty rates between city and county areas.

In total, 52,121 children aged 0 to 15 – around 25 per cent – were considered to be 'living in poverty' across Leicestershire in the year ending March 2024, according to the figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). 

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This is an increase from the previous year's statistics when 50,294 youngsters met this threshold.

However, the situation is much more desperate for children in some parts of Leicestershire than others. 

In the Wycliffe area of Leicester, more than three out of every five children (61 per cent) were deemed to be living in poverty, a total of 2,394 kids.

In the Spinney Hills district of the city, some 56 per cent were classed as living below the breadline. Meanwhile, in North Evington and in Stoneygate the figure was 54 per and 52 per cent respectively.

A spokesman for Leicestershire County Council added: "Child poverty remains a pressing issue across the UK, with significant implications for children's current and future wellbeing where children are growing up in households with income that doesn't enable them to meet basic needs. Rising housing costs and the cost of living are direct contributors to the financial strain and services across the county are working hard to support families to access work, education and other resources to support living costs."

Campaign group End Child Poverty Coalition said it believes ending the two-child benefit cap is a key move towards easing poverty levels for UK kids. Joseph Howes, CEO of Buttle UK and chair of the End Child Poverty Coalition, said: "Scrapping the two-child limit is a crucial first step to address rising child poverty across the UK.

"By doing this the Government could also see a boost to local economies, targeting some of the most deprived areas of the country. We don't want to see another year of families suffering as a result of the two-child limit. The Government must scrap this policy as part of their soon to be published strategy to tackle child poverty."

A Government spokesperson said: "No child should be in poverty – that's why our ministerial taskforce is developing an ambitious strategy to give every child the best start in life as part of our Plan for Change. Alongside delivering on our Get Britain Working reforms to support people into good jobs and make everyone better off, we have increased the Living Wage, uprated benefits and are supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions to help low-income households."

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