MORE than a third of children are trapped in poverty in some parts of Northwich, new research suggests.

Figures released by End Child Poverty – off the back of Loughborough University research – show that, when living costs are taken into account, more than 27 per cent of all households in west Cheshire were living in poverty in 2017/18.

But in previous Cheshire West and Chester Council wards Witton and Rudheath and Winnington and Castle, this rose to as high as 33 and 35 per cent, respectively.

Elsewhere, 27 per cent of households were living in poverty in Weaver and Cuddington ward, 26 per cent in Hartford and Greenbank, and 23 per cent in Davenham and Moulton.

The research from the UK’s leading child poverty coalition classes households as living in poverty if their income – adjusted to account for household size – is less than 60 per cent of the median.

Weaver Vale MP Mike Amesbury has slammed the figures and called for the government to take urgent action.

He said: “Benefits cuts, low-paid and insecure work underwritten by the government’s ideologically-driven austerity agenda have led us down this path.

“This is also been compounded by cuts to children’s services such as education, childcare and social care as well as children’s mental health services.

“This comes only a couple of weeks after the Trussell Trust revealed food bank use was rocketing too. That’s two independent organisations painting a picture of rising and often extreme poverty in what is a relatively wealthy nation, all the while the government continues to deny it all.

“It’s time they acknowledged what’s going on, stop burying their heads in the sand and reverse these destructive policies.”

CWAC renewed its Poverty Truth Commission (PTC) for a second term earlier this year, having founded it in 2017. It aims to address gaps in services and inequalities across the borough.

Anna Feuchtwang, End Child Poverty chairman, said poverty was becoming ‘the rule’ rather than the exception, with some areas across the UK seeing more than half of all children trapped in poverty.

She said: “We know what causes child poverty and we know how to end it. We know that the income of less well-off families has been hit by severe real-terms cuts in benefits and by higher housing costs.

“And we know that work does not guarantee a route out of poverty, with two thirds of child poverty occurring in working families.

“Yet in many areas growing up in poverty is not the exception it’s the rule with more children expected to get swept up in poverty in the coming years, with serious consequences for their life chances.

“The Government must respond with a credible child poverty reduction strategy. This just isn’t right.

"Growing up in poverty means growing up trapped."