 Child poverty is not confined to the valleys areas |
Nearly 10% of the poorest areas in the UK are in Wales, according to new research. A study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that high concentrations of child poverty existed in parts of Cardiff, Newport, the Rhondda, Swansea and Wrexham.
The report claimed 17 of the 180 poorest areas in the UK were in Wales.
The think-tank - which is marking its centenary - wants to see a long-term anti-poverty strategy.
It believes there should be a comprehensive strategy for helping the poorest places and the poorest people, and that people's futures should not depend so heavily on where they are born or brought up.
Donald Hirsch, a special advisor with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said the study showed that although there was significant poverty in the former coal and steel heartlands of the Heads of the Valleys towns, it also existed in the cities.
"We think there is a particular phenomenon," he told BBC Radio Wales.
"There are areas where children are growing up and seeing very few people in work, and with other associated problems - poor health, low educational expectations," he said.
Mr Hirsch said much could be done by local and central government to reduce existing poverty, but thought should also be given to averting future problems.
Communities with particular problems should be given help to regenerate, he said. However, great care should also be taken when new communities were being created.
There was a danger, he said, in building big estates to house large concentrations of disadvantaged people together.
The new research revealed :
One in five children in England, Scotland, and Wales is living in a family receiving means-tested benefits because parents or carers are not working In 100 local authority wards with the worst concentrations of poverty, almost six out of 10 children belong to families relying on Income Support and other benefits In 180 wards, more than half the children are in families receiving out-of-work, means-tested benefits. Glasgow has more of these wards than any other local authority In June, another study revealed that most children in poverty in Wales lived outside areas officially classed as deprived.
 | HIGH CONCENTRATIONS OF CHILD POVERTY Cardiff Newport Rhondda Swansea Wrexham Source: Joseph Roundtree Foundation |
A child poverty action group set up by the Welsh Assembly Government said ministers in Cardiff Bay were failing to use all their powers to tackle the problem.
Health and Social Services Minister Jane Hutt said at the time that "rigorous" action was needed.
Ms Hutt told fellow AMs she was confident a plan could be developed to "meet the challenge of eradicating child poverty".
Wales' Assistant Children's Commissioner Sara Reid said the report made the point that most poor children did not live in the deprived districts classified as Communities First areas.
"Just because you live in an affluent community it doesn't mean that a family doesn't face persistent and severe poverty and this is particularly true in sparsely populated areas of Wales," she said.
She said the report was not only about income, but also related to such issues as access to services and whether children were able to take part in their communities.
These factors, she said, had "a big impact on children's life chances and their experience of childhood", and it was vital that anti-poverty work was in the mainstream.
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