Poor parenting and designer brand greed caused London riots, claims report

The hard-hitting report, called After the Riots, also recommended that young people who get into trouble be sent to US-style military boot camps to build their character.

The report, which questioned the effectiveness of the UK government’s controversial work programme, was commissioned by David Cameron after the riots which began in Tottenham following the shooting of a local man by police and then spread across England.

A total of five people died, some 5,000 crimes were recorded and the economy is thought to have lost about £500 million.

The panel that compiled the report, chaired by Darra Singh, the chief executive of Job Centre Plus and former chief executive of Ealing and Luton councils, also recommends schools should be fined if they do not meet the required standards in teaching children to read and write.

Tories in the coalition government have privately admitted that they are seething that the report has downplayed the problem of gang culture, although it has described it as a “contributory factor”.

The wide-ranging report claimed the desire for high-profile brands fuelled young people’s involvement in last year’s looting and violence.

The panel found the riots were characterised “by opportunistic looting and very much targeted at brands”, with half of all recorded offences being acquisitive in nature.

Most of the shops targeted sold “high-value consumer products”, including designer clothes, trainers, mobile telephones and computers, the report said.

More than half of 1,200 people surveyed thought there was a “growing gap between rich and poor” in their local area, with 85 per cent saying advertising puts pressure on young people to own the latest products.

More than two-thirds felt materialism among young people was a problem within their local area and seven in ten felt steps needed to be taken to reduce the amount of advertising aimed at young people. “While no-one individual brand is to blame, children and young people must be protected from excessive marketing, while supporting business and not harming commerce,” the report said.

It added: “We believe that businesses have a clear role giving something back to society and making progressive steps to sharing wealth and providing opportunities for individuals to achieve a stake in business.”

The report called for the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to make the impact of advertising and branding techniques on young people a feature of its new school education programme “to raise resilience among children”.

On the role of parenting, the report noted: “We heard from many communities who felt that rioter behaviour could ultimately be ascribed to poor parenting. We need to consider what can be done to ensure that all children get the right level of support, control and guidance from parents or guardians.”

But it also suggested “a lack of character” was partly to blame and looked to an example in the US of how to build character.

“An example of this comes from the US army which has developed the master resilience trainer, which forms part of the comprehensive soldier fitness programme,” it said.

The report found that up to 15,000 people, most aged under 24, actively took part in the riots, with “countless more bystanders observing”.