The 225 most deprived town neighbourhoods in England – full list | UK | News

Research previously named England’s “left behind” neighbourhoods – and there were more than 200 of them. In 2018, The Local Trust commissioned Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion (OCSI) to put together data analysis showing the impact of social infrastructure on outcomes in England’s deprived communities.

The Local Trust was established in 2012 to deliver the National Lottery Community Fund-funded programme Big Local, which is providing 150 neighbourhoods across England £1m each to use to improve the area they see fit. The organisation said on its website that its experience of delivering the programme “indicated that social infrastructure – defined as places and spaces to meet, connectivity (physical and digital) and community engagement – is a key determinant of the prospects of neighbourhoods and their residents”.

The research used data from two indices: the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), which is produced by the Government, as well as the Community Needs Index (CNI), which the Local Trust and OCSI partnered on to create.

The charity said combining the two made it possible to identify neighbourhoods facing “the double disadvantage of being severely deprived and having the least social infrastructure in the country”.

The original research identified 206 “left behind” neighbourhoods in England, defined by the trust as places that “have tended not to receive their fair share of available investment and they therefore lack the services and facilities that many of us take for granted”.

A 2020 update incorporated changes to the Index of Multiple Deprivation, which it said showed that 225 wards fell into this category at the time.

It noted that the neighbourhoods were predominantly located in post-industrial and coastal areas of the North of England and the Midlands.

Residents of these areas were found to have “markedly worse socio-economic outcomes than the residents of other equally deprived areas”, which suggested “the value and importance of social infrastructure”.

The Local Trust said research found that neighbourhoods that are “doubly disadvantaged” see greater challenges across various life outcomes, “including higher rates of poverty, lower educational attainment, and worse population health”.

It noted that there were very few neighbourhoods that fell into the “left behind” category in London and other city centres, and that while they have significant problems with deprivation, a proliferation of social infrastructure means they had “low community need as defined by our Community Needs Index”.

However, it’s worth noting that the research was published in 2020, and there has been a subsequent update to the Community Needs Index data.

Earlier this year,  government announced £1.5billion in funding for 75 selected communities as part of its Plan for Neighbourhoods.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said in press release that the funds would be “handed to towns across the UK to tackle deprivation and turbocharge growth as every area joins the decade of national renewal committed to in our Plan for Change”.

Alex Norris, who was Minister for Local Growth and Building Safety at the time before moving to the Home Office, said: “When our local neighbourhoods thrive, the rest of the country thrives too. That’s why we are empowering communities to take control of their futures and create the regeneration and growth they want to see. 

“Our Plan for Neighbourhoods we will deliver long-term funding that will bolster that inner community spirit in us all and relight the fires in corners of the UK that have for too long been left fighting for survival.  

“This, along with our ambitious reforms to streamline the planning system, devolve powers and strengthen workers’ rights, will help get places and people thriving once again.”

Express.co.uk has approached the MHCLG for comment via email.

You can find the full list of “left behind” neighbourhoods identified in the previous research below: