Redbridge has been named as the third best place in the country for giving opportunities to disadvantaged children.

Research conducted by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission ranked local authorities in England according to how well children from a disadvantaged backgrounds do at school and how likely they were to get a good job.

The index maps the geography of disadvantage, and shows London and its commuter belt pulling away from the rest of the country in terms of social mobility.

Westminster and Wandsworth were listed as the top social mobility hotspots ahead of Redbridge.

The study, published yesterday, also reveals that many better-off parts of England are worse at creating opportunities for their disadvantaged children than areas that are far more deprived.

Social mobility and child poverty chairman Alan Milburn said: “The social mobility index uncovers a new geography of disadvantage in England.

“It lays bare the local lottery in social mobility and it gets beneath the surface of a crude north-south divide and calls into question some of the conventional wisdom about where disadvantage is now located.

“It is shocking that many of the richest areas of the country are the ones failing their poorest children the most.”

Mr Milburn believes much more needs to be done to make the country a level playing field and added: “This report is a wake-up call for educators and employers as well as policy-makers, both local and national.

“I hope the government will put itself at the head of a new national drive to ensure that in future progress in life depends on aptitude and ability, not background and birth, on where people aspire to get to, not where they have come from.”