FAILING to eradicate devastating poverty across Scotland is costing up to £2.4 billion a year, a new charity report has warned.

Researchers at IPPR Scotland, Save the Children and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) found eye-watering sums are being spent tackling the results of poverty which could be better targeted at preventing it. 

The study found between £1.6 and £2.4bn per year – up to 1.5 per cent of Scotland’s entire economic output – is lost due to historic child poverty north of the border.