A "huge social gulf" has opened up between the rich and poor in Britain's cities, a Conservative shadow cabinet member warned.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling was speaking ahead of today's launch of a strategy paper setting out Tory plans to tackle inequality in what they term "Britain's divided cities".
Under the plans, specialist help would be offered to get young people out of gangs and into work or training, while job placements for 18 to 21 year olds in areas affected by gang crime would be made a priority in the welfare system.
Meanwhile, welfare-to-work spending would be targeted at independent organisations and there are promises of better support for community groups working in deprived areas.
Mr Grayling will today visit the deprived Toxteth area of Liverpool, and will tell local business leaders in a speech that life in parts of Britain's cities has become "a throwback to the 19th century of Victorian gangs and vast social divides".
He will set out a five-point plan to tackle joblessness and the gang culture, as well as extra school funding for children from disadvantaged backgrounds and a "zero tolerance" approach to gun and knife crime and violent disorder.
The document accuses the Labour Government of allowing income inequality to rise to an all-time high and the gap in the life expectancy of rich and poor to reach its widest since Victorian times.
Promising to make "fixing our broken society" the top priority of a Conservative Government, the document describes Britain as "a divided nation, where the poorest in our society are growing poorer while the fortunes of the richest are rising" and where "pockets of extreme deprivation sit right next to some of our most affluent districts".
"Hidden behind smart city high streets and wealthy urban centres are whole communities blighted by crime, where almost nobody works, and where the gang culture on the streets offers children a kind of stability and support that family life has not provided," states the strategy paper.
"The stark inequality and crushing disadvantage in our most deprived areas are the visible scars of a broken society. Educational failure, community decline, lawlessness, addiction and benefit dependency are destroying far too many lives."
Mr Grayling yesterday visited a programme run by the Metropolitan Police and charity Tomorrow's People to move young men out of the south London gang culture and into work or training, which he said was the kind of project desperately needed to meet the social problems of Britain's inner cities.
Speaking after the visit, he said: "The only way to start to heal the huge social gulf that now exists in our cities is to demonstrate to those who are caught up in the gang culture that there is a better alternative - that they can build successful lives if they get the right opportunity to train and work.
"The trouble is that right now things seem to be getting worse not better. We desperately need that to change."
But Labour's welfare reform minister Stephen Timms said: "Chris Grayling talks down our great cities with Victorian comparisons, but it's not clear whether the Tories have anything other than Victorian solutions.
"For all the talk about child poverty, they won't commit to targets to abolish child poverty.
"For all the talk about social mobility, the Conservative Party social mobility taskforce under David Davis did not meet for over a year and still hasn't produced any policies.
"For all their talk about the voluntary sector, Oliver Letwin has revealed that their agenda isn't about harnessing the voluntary sector's energy and expertise, but about saving money.
"And in the end, our cities would be more divided if the Tories got the chance to cut tax credits and the New Deal.
"One week on from our radical welfare reform proposals, Chris Grayling is left scratching his head and the Tories are left with nothing to say."
Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokeswoman Jenny Willott said Mr Grayling was "just rehashing old announcements from the Conservatives".
Ms Willott said: "When will the Tories admit that the problems in deprived cities got worse in the 1990s when they were in charge?
"Instead of taking responsibility and telling us how they will help they say that volunteer groups and private companies must do all the hard work.
"No one believes that can make the real difference in struggling neighbourhoods. It just doesn't ring true."
Speaking on GMTV today, Mr Grayling acknowledged the problems in Britain's cities dated back generations, but insisted it was important to tackle them and "not to fight over what happened 20 years ago".
