A CHARITY is calling on the government to take drastic action after figures revealed there are around 10,000 children living in severe poverty in the Dudley borough.

Save The Children is demanding an emergency plan to ease the chronic conditions which some 1.6m kids nationally are forced to live in.

The group wants to see new jobs channelled into the poorest areas and increased financial help - including extra childcare funding - for low income families The West Midlands is the second worst-affected region for child poverty, with around 16 per cent of the young population suffering - a figure topped only by London at 18 per cent.

Save The Children head of UK policy, Sally Copley, said: “Children up and down the country are going to sleep at night in homes with no heating, without eating a proper meal and without proper school uniforms to put on in the morning.

“No child should be born without a chance.”