Housing costs are one of the reasons thousands of families are being driven into poverty, a council leader has said.

It comes as a report into child poverty in London revealed that 21,000 kids in Greenwich are living below the breadline.

Councillor Sarah Merrill said at a full council meeting on Wednesday, December 12: “Under Labour foodbanks were established for refugees with no public funds.

“Today they are an essential recognised part of our social security system.

“The Children Society has just published a report that alarmingly announces 21,000 in Greenwich will go to sleep in poverty. What is the council going to do about this?”

It comes following a separate report into foodbank use in the borough which revealed soaring numbers of families relying on charities such as The Trussell Trust.

According to council documents, there is a growing number of people experiencing food poverty at a “crisis” level.

Council leader Dan Thorpe said housing costs and benefit changes could be behind a spike in Greenwich.

“Just over a third of our children is defined as living in poverty. That’s more than ten children in every one of our classrooms,” Cllr Thorpe said.

“In particular, housing costs are driving families into poverty. Last night 954 families and households were accommodated by us in temporary accommodation. That’s a spike we are trying to understand, it’s linked to benefit changes.

“Obviously we are doing a lot of work to drive our housing agenda forward.

“Yesterday we met to start work on the paper we are bringing forward to you in February that will set out the amount we will borrow to build homes as that’s what we need to do.

“We will continue to do as much as we can around London Living Wage to get people better wages, to help people in dealing with the challenges that people face. These are issues that affect us all.”

The leader said a further debate on the issues should be set up for the new year.