The Government risks another Baby P tragedy through its savage cuts programme, a council leader has warned.

Lambeth Council leader Steve Reed attacked the Government's comprehensive spending review, branding it "a conserted attack on poor people".

Coun Reed warned budgets in Lambeth were so devastating virtually no service areas were safe - outlining libraries as an area where the axe could fall.

He warned the weight of cuts could mean staff in social services were left with enormous workloads, which could grow further as the impact of cuts in services were felt by communities.

He said: "Social workers could be so overworked we risk another Baby P tragedy."

School improvements budgets have been axed by 60 per cent, while the town hall understands its decent homes funding - to improve substandard council homes -will be cut by a third, some £80m.

Lambeth had been planning for 25 per cent cuts across its departments, but are now faced with 27 per cent cuts - meaning £65m will have to be slashed from Lambeth's budget by the end of 2014.

The Governmenthas said by cutting public spending so deeply and quickly, it can cutits debt to zero in four years, protecting the economy.

Coun Reed said the reductions in spending were "frontloaded", meaning a crippling £36m of cuts will have to be found next financial year - £14m more than was anticipated for 2010-11. He would not say how many job cuts would follow as a result.

It will also have to decide itself where the axe falls, after the Government took away ring-fencing of grants to local councils.

Coun Reed said the Government was trying "to localise blame to local authorities".

He added: "The cuts are devastating. Its almost like a conserted attack on poor people."

He said the town hall was still going through the implications of the cuts, but the council would still stick "as much as it possibly could" to its promise to safeguard the most vulnerable residents.

He said safeguarding children, the Young and Safe youth crime intervention programme, and help for the long-term unemployed were all priorities.

He also said he expected the policy of councils and housing associations charging 80 per cent of private market rates to new social housing tenants would drive poorer people completely from the council estates in the north of Lambeth, where rents could rise from £80 to hundreds of pounds a week.

He said the same effect to a lesser extent could drive poorer people from Streatham and Norwood to outer London.

He said: "We risk London being ghettoised in to a two tier city."

He said poor people would be forced to live on the outside of London away from rich inner city areas.