More than 30,000 people in the area claim education maintenance allowance which helps poor students aged 16 to 18 afford to stay in school or college. But the scheme is being scrapped by the Government at the end of this academic year.Across London, almost 100,000 teenagers claim payments of between £10 and £30 a week. Figures from the Department for Education show the biggest demand is in east London — more than 5,000 in Newham get the allowance, along with more than 4,000 in Tower Hamlets, compared with 900 in Richmond.

A 19-year-old student told the BBC their strategy was to avoid being contained by police: "Whenever the police block us off, we turn round and go the other way. "We also do not want to be panicked into violence. Smashing up windows was necessary in the beginning to get the demonstrations on the front pages, but now any violence would be counter-productive."