OXFORD has been branded a "coldspot" for social mobility by a new government report.

According to the first 'social mobility index' - which measures the life chances of children from poorer backgrounds in different areas - the city ranked among the worst 20 per cent of areas in the country.

The findings showed richer cities were failing disadvantaged children, the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission said.

Oxford was in the same category as Arun, Crawley, Hastings and Thanet in the south east, with cities elsewhere such as Cambridge, Worcester and Northampton also criticised for doing "badly".

Other areas such as Dartford, Slough, Tunbridge Wells and Winchester were praised for being social mobility 'hotspots', in the top 20 per cent.

Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission chairman Alan Milburn said the findings laid bare "the local lottery in social mobility".

He said: "It is shocking that many of the richest areas of the country are the ones failing their poorest children the most.

"This report is a wake-up call for educators and employers as well as policy-makers, both local and national.

"If social mobility is to take off, much more will need to be done if there is to be a level playing field of opportunity in our country.

"The gulf between the ambition of a one nation Britain and today’s reality of a divided Britain is far too wide.

"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.

"This report suggests that is long overdue."