More than nine years after Tees Valley voted for the supposed benefits of Brexit, more than eight after Lord Ben Houchen was elected Mayor of Tees Valley and over six since Boris Johnson promised to level up left-behind areas, Middlesbrough remains the local authority with the highest proportion of most deprived neighbourhoods in England.
The relative position of Hartlepool, also part of Houchen’s domain, has actually worsened. It now has the third highest proportion of most deprived neighbourhoods compared with ninth most previously.
Houchen’s abysmal failure to raise the relative prosperity of these two poverty-stricken boroughs after so many years in unchallenged control of Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) and its three mayoral development corporations (MDCs), including one in Middlesbrough and one in Hartlepool, is an indictment of his scandal-laden period in office.
Indices of Deprivation
The wretched record is revealed in the latest English Indices of Deprivation (IoD) 2025 published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) for the first time since 2019. They are accredited official statistics, and they make woeful reading for Tees Valley.
The Indices (IoD25) measure relative levels of deprivation in 33,755 small areas or neighbourhoods in England averaging 1,500 residents or 650 households across seven so-called domains of deprivation – income, employment, education, health, crime, barriers to housing and services, and living environment. There are two subsets of the income deprivation domain – one as it affects children and one for older people.
The domains are combined and weighted to form a single Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD25), which is divided into tenths (deciles). The local authority districts with the highest proportion of neighbourhoods in the top decile nationally are the most deprived. This is the calculation that makes Middlesbrough the most deprived of all 296 local authorities in England, as it was in 2019, and Hartlepool third most deprived.
Child poverty
In Middlesbrough, 50% of neighbourhoods fall into the most deprived category and in Hartlepool the figure is 42%. The area of Middlesbrough around Corporation Road and the Cleveland Centre has been within the 100 most deprived neighbourhoods nationally in all six iterations of the IMD since 2004.
Of the 10% most deprived neighbourhoods in England, 226 rank as highly deprived in six or more domains of deprivation, of which seven neighbourhoods are in Middlesbrough. Liverpool has the most, with 20.
For all Houchen’s boasts of creating well-paid jobs, both Middlesbrough and Hartlepool are among nine local authority districts ranked as most deprived in both income deprivation and employment deprivation. In Middlesbrough, 55% of children live in income-deprived households, the tenth highest in a league table dominated by London boroughs.
The only domain of deprivation in which Middlesbrough does not rank in the most deprived decile is living environment, which measures road traffic accidents, housing quality and air quality (no more Smoggies, then).
Two of the three other districts in Tees Valley saw their relative national rankings worsen between 2019 and 2025. Redcar & Cleveland went from 23rd most deprived to 21st and Darlington from 37th to 33rd. But Stockton improved its position from 32nd most deprived to 34th and saw its proportion of most deprived neighbourhoods fall slightly.
North East region
Tees Valley is not the only part of the North East to suffer high levels of deprivation, though overall it is the worst affected. The region as a whole has 21.5% of its neighbourhoods among the most deprived, followed by 20.2% in the North West. In the East of England it is only 3.9%. Not a single North East local authority is in the least deprived half of districts in England:
The regional picture is mixed. Northumberland, North Tyneside and South Tyneside improved their relative positions while County Durham, Newcastle, Sunderland and Gateshead moved in the wrong direction.
Rural deprivation in County Durham
Rural areas are under-represented among the most deprived neighbourhoods, with only 71 (1.3%) of the 5,554 rural neighbourhoods included in this category, compared with 11.7% of urban neighbourhoods. The biggest rural problem is housing in poor condition.
But County Durham is an exception. Of the top 20 most deprived rural areas nationally, no fewer than eight are in County Durham, including the top three, which are around Peterlee, Horden and Shotton Colliery. There is also one most deprived rural neighbourhood each in Northumberland and Redcar & Cleveland.
Not all the statistics are strictly comparable between 2019 and 2025 because of local government reorganisations, boundary changes, the indicators used and methodology.
Mayor Houchen’s office has been approached for a response.
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