The Government's strategy against poverty and social exclusion has come under fire from an influential think  tank.

The Joseph Rowntree report Monitoring poverty and social exclusion also said the Government's strategy was in need of a ‘major rethink', after losing momentum. Covering 50 indicators of poverty and social exclusion, the report recorded a worsening in the last year in nine categories, mainly in the key areas of income and work.

The most serious setback was the increase of 200,000 children – to 3.8m – living in poverty in 2005/06 compared with the previous year.