Campaigners are calling for a change in the law to ban loan companies from charging interest rates of up to 300%.

Three million people are being made to pay extortionate rates because they are too poor to borrow money from high street banks, say the campaign researchers.

And they accuse loan firms of taking advantage of people on low incomes.

The group, led by Church Action on Poverty, is issuing a report called Debt on Our Doorstep, and is supported by various organisations including the Child Poverty Action Group.

The report says the business of lending money at high rates is worth �1bn a day.

It calls for a crackdown on "alternative" credit companies, including legal limits on interest rates.

The group says interest is calculated annually, not daily - so any repayments on the loan are often not taken into account for many months.

And the report says rates can run to several hundred percent.