Figures recently released by the Government show a shocking variation of life expectancy within our borough.

The residents of poorer wards like Waddon, New Addington, Broad Green and, my home ward, Selhurst, are likely to die six years earlier than those in affluent wards to the south of the borough.

These remarkable disparities persist despite years of initiatives by successive governments, supposedly aimed at the urban disadvantaged.

Educational opportunity is rightly seen as a way out of poverty. However, according to the London School of Economics, the evidence is that it has been the richer social groups who have taken advantage of the expansion in educational facilities and opportunities since the 1980s.

This is hardly surprising as so much in education, for young and old alike, has been effectively privatised and sold as a market commodity.

More than almost any developed country, those born poor in the UK stay poor. Labour and Conservative governments have created a society in which those that have' live longer - and those that haven't' don't.

When will our elected leaders adopt joined up thinking' policies that have knock on positive effects on other social problems?

Areas with pockets of poverty and deprivation are synonymous with those with crime. Take people out of poverty and you can reduce crime as well as increase life expectancy.

SHASHA KHAN Croydon Green Party