Oxford was among the areas with the highest rates of destitution

Extreme poverty is spreading in affluent English cities and some London boroughs despite higher levels of employment, academics have found.

Oxford, Norwich and Ealing, in west London, were among the local authority areas with the highest rates of destitution in Britain, a report from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh said.

Overall there was a big fall in destitution, by 25 per cent since a similar analysis in 2015, largely because of the creation of more jobs and associated falls in unemployment, coupled with a significant drop in benefit sanctions to claimants of jobseeker’s allowance. Its geographical spread had changed, however, with higher levels of extreme poverty no longer clustered solely in former industrial areas and inner cities in the north of England, the midlands, Scotland and