£19,000 a year is average profit of a drug dealer

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Researchers commissioned by Lambeth council interviewed 60 street dealers and found they made an average "salary" of £18,800 - about twice the minimum wage of £5.52 an hour.

They also discovered that as well as street dealing, a delivery service was run from estates near Brixton town centre, using local children as runners.

The report, based on the south London market area, said most sellers around the stalls had to have permission from local drug dealers to work there.

It also said friends and even parents pushed their children to work as runners. Sometimes addicts who needed the cash to fund their habit were used.

Mark Bennett, head of Lambeth's Safer Communities team, said the situation had improved since the research was carried out in 2006/7.

A spokeswoman for the council said: "Local people tell us that we've already made a difference: the police have identified and arrested a number of dealers and we have removed bus shelters and phone boxes where dealing took place."

But Martin Barnes, chief executive of Drugscope, said: "It can be very profitable work which is why a lot of young people get involved with it."