It should be the cause of national shame that in the sixth richest country in the world, one in three children lives in poverty.

In an excellent new book, Professor of Geography at Oxford University, Danny Dorling looks at how seven strata of British children are impacted by the poverty and inequality so rampant here.

The seven fictional characters each represent two million children. They were born in 2018.

Housing costs play an important role in impoverishing every child. Dorling points out how 40 years ago the private rented sector was very minor - just 10% of adults rented privately and rents were low.

Since then, the selling off of council houses and removal of rent controls means that housing has become a huge drain on families across the board.

Today, one in nine people are ‘buy to let’ landlords. The sector has become a parasitical device for enhancing inequality in society.

Cllr Paul Donovan says that rent has become a huge drain n familiesCllr Paul Donovan says that rent has become a huge drain n families (Image: Paul Donovan)

The book is full of shocking facts, like that one in seven children grow up in homes too cold because their parents cannot afford to heat them.

A killer stat for those opposing extending child benefit beyond two children is that families of three plus children make up 75% of the poorest two-fifths of the population. Removing the limit would cut poverty at a stroke.

Meanwhile, the very rich continue to prosper, whilst the lot of the poorest and everyone in between continues to decline. It is an unsustainable construct.

Some of the solutions are simple and obvious, such as filling the 648,114 empty homes in England. Second homeowners could be made to pay more. Rent controls should return.

Implementation of a Universal Basic Income would help, plus stronger trade unions, so better pay. Extending child benefit beyond two children. All these things can help make the country more equal.

Children are the future of the country yet at present they are being forced to take the brunt of a bankrupt system that deepens inequality, poverty and human suffering. It cannot go on.
Danny Dorling is speaking at the Wanstead Tap on October 9.

  • Paul Donovan is Labour councillor for Wanstead Village ward, Redbridge Council and a blogger (paulfdonovan.blogspot.com).