A police officer in riot gear stands in front of a burning car on a street in Hackney, August 8.

Clapham residents clean up in St John's road after a third night of rioting and looting in London.

A boy looks at a burned out vehicle in Ealing in west London after a third night of rioting in the British capital.

Firemen work in the area of Clapham in London in the aftermath of a third night of riots in the British capital.

Looters rampage through a convenience store in Hackney, east London as violence broke out in the British capital for a third night.

Bystanders watch as firemen continue to dowse down buildings set alight during riots in Tottenham in north London.

A rioter walks through a burning barricade in Liverpool as violence flared in several England cities.

People try to kick in the window of a jeweller's shop near the Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham as violence spread outside London.

A police forensics officer inspects the scene where three men were killed by a car in the Winson Green area of Birmingham.

The social unrest plaguing London has been brewing for years and a Christchurch youth affairs expert says the problems are just as bad in New Zealand.

Canterbury University academic Bronwyn Hayward has been based in England studying political issues affecting youth culture for the past three years.

She said the riots that have attracted the world's eye to London were inevitable, and the social problems that sparked the violence have been simmering in New Zealand for some time.

"It feels as though I have been watching a slow train wreck for three years," she said.

"I'm not surprised it's come to this, but I am really sad. So many social commentators warned the British Government it would end in this. They were told it would be a summer of violence, but they were in denial and no-one listened."

Hayward, a senior lecturer in political science who has been awarded a $1 million international research grant, said the rebellious youths represented an angry generation that had "no stake in the future and nothing to lose".

She said she saw some of the riots in England last year.

"There were kids as young as 14 out in the streets back then. They were angry, pumped up, burning things in the street, breaking windows and generally looking for a fight. It has now spread across the whole country and it's time for Britain to face that it has been ignoring its children," she said.

Soaring youth unemployment had coincided with major budget cuts to education and training programmes in England, which Hayward said had spiralled the youth culture into disarray.

She said this unruly generation was the first in England to experience living conditions, employment opportunities and health conditions that had deteriorated since its parents and grandparents grew up.

The high concentrations of young people in "youth-saturated communities" in England had resulted in violent scuffles that she called "postcode turf wars".

"The youth are physically constrained and scared to move around. They are kept penned into their home territory, with outbreaks of knife fights when they step out of their postcode area, which can sometimes be just a couple of blocks."

A tinderbox of conditions had ignited the unrest, but the issues were significant for developed countries.

High youth unemployment rates and rising tension in young people was prevalent in New Zealand, she said.

The youth unemployment rate for 15 year old to 19-year-old New Zealanders was 27 per cent, and she said this was alarming compared with Britain's 20 per cent.

"The problems are just as bad in New Zealand but the one significant difference between here and Britain is the concentration of young people in cities," she said.

"The issues are here and they are rising, but they are just expressed differently. In New Zealand, we won't see the concentration of youth city rioting, but we do see and will see more youth suffering."

Young people's suffering was not expressed on New Zealand streets but in the fact that New Zealand consistently had the world's highest rate of youth suicide, she said.