SUSSEX seaside towns have experienced some of the highest increases in child poverty in the country.

Child poverty rates have been rising rapidly in some of the most impoverished towns in the South East, with a quarter of children in Hastings now living in poverty.

A study by End Child Poverty coalition and Loughborough University documents child poverty rates across Britain over the last four years, before housing costs are taken into account.

The report highlights those area where children are most likely to have been swept into poverty since 2014.

In 2014/15, the child poverty rate in Hastings was 18.2 per cent. That had increased by 7.3 per cent by 2018/19. In 2014/15, the rate in Eastbourne was 14.5 per cent. In 2018/19, it had increased by 5.2 per cent.

Over the same period in Brighton and Hove, the rate increased by 3.4 per cent – 15 per cent of city children live in poverty.