Iain Duncan Smith has urged the Conservative Party to put tackling inner city problems such as drugs and crime at the top of its agenda.

The former Tory leader launched a new think thank, the Centre for Social Justice, on Monday in a bid to raise the profile of urban regeneration issues within his party.

In speeches during his time in the top Conservative job, Duncan Smith said the experience of a visit to Glasgow's impoverished Easterhouse estate had left a lasting impression on him.

And now on his party's backbenches, he challenged the party to make social justice a top priority.

"Conservative beliefs in family, academic excellence and the right to choose must be made to work in the inner cities. But the Conservative prospectus needs to be broader still," Duncan Smith said.

"Added to priorities on tax, crime and now, thankfully, public services, must be deeper commitments to social justice, to the environment and ultimately to international development."

Also attending the launch were shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin and shadow work and pensions secretary David Willetts.

They heard Duncan Smith say the new think tank would "challenge the Conservative Party to take this agenda seriously".

"Conservative policies have to work for Britain's poorest communities and every policy must be measured against that standard," he said.

Urging the party to back his agenda, he argued it would be popular with the public as well as being morally right.

"Voters want a political party to be good for them and good for their neighbour," he said.

"They want a Conservative Party that makes their nation stronger and brings them together."

Duncan smith highlighted drug addiction and crime as the "giant social challenges" facing Britain.

"The poorest communities are in the grips of those giants but every community can feel the giants' breath on their necks," he said.

"All politics begins in the inner cities...the inner city is a state of mind, and the problem is that that state of mind is growing and spreading."