The East End has fewer trees on its streets than any other London borough.

Newham has 17,700 known to line the roads and highways while there are just 4,000 in neighbouring of Tower Hamlets, putting the area at the bottom of the league table.

London Assembly’s environment chairman Darren Johnson blamed the recession for the dwindling numbers being planted.

A major concern in 2007 was town halls being too quick to chop down trees if households and insurance companies blamed them for subsidence damage.

A �4million street trees programme is on course to seee another 10,000 planted in areas like the East End, but it finishes next year.

Only the City has fewer street trees than Tower Hamlets – just 531 in the Square Mile – compared with 20,000 in Waltham Forest, 21,000 in Redbridge and 23,000 in Havering.