Ayresome, once proud home to Middlesbrough Football Club, has acquired a new official but unwelcome record for deprivation. It is one of only three neighbourhoods out of 33,755 in England to figure consistently among the country’s most deprived for more than 20 years.
The decaying Victorian terraces are listed alongside parts of Rochdale and the Wirral as having appeared among the nation’s 100 most deprived areas on all six occasions the government’s Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) has been published since 2004. The three are described in the latest IMD, just out – as reported here – as extreme examples of persistent deprivation.
There are other places in the North East too which have appeared consistently in the most deprived 1% over the same period – one other in Middlesbrough, two in Redcar & Cleveland and one each in Sunderland, Hartlepool, Stockton, County Durham and Newcastle.
All exemplify how governments have failed for decades to level up the North East’s most deprived areas, in spite of all the well-meant but under-resourced development agencies and enterprise partnerships that have come and gone since the 1960s.
Moving the deck chairs
Comparison of the IMD over the decades confirms the depressing impression that nothing much changes. As the UK ship of state sails on, all that happens on the deprivation deck is that the chairs get moved around from time to time. But their occupants stay largely the same. As the IMD Research Report says wearily: “{W}hile there is some variation in the ranking of local authority districts between updates of the Indices, some districts have been ranked consistently among the most deprived according to the five updates…”
This time, for example, Stockton, Northumberland, Newcastle, North Tyneside and South Tyneside have improved their relative positions in the IMD while Hartlepool, Redcar & Cleveland, Darlington, County Durham, Sunderland and Gateshead all suffered a fall in ranking. Middlesbrough remains at the bottom of the pile, with no further to fall.
All 12 North East local authorities, whether up or down this time, remain well within the ranks of England’s most deprived. and who is to say that their positions will not be reversed when the IMD is next published, probably in about five years? For the North East’s deprived neighbourhoods, it is a permanent exercise of one step forwards, one step back.
This pattern is evident too in the seven individual domains of deprivation into which the Index is divided – income, employment, education, health, crime, barriers to housing and services, and living environment – and the two subsets of income deprivation affecting children and older people. All districts do better this time in some domains than in the previous IMD in 2019 and worse in others.
The exception, surprisingly, is in the income domain, where all have improved their position except Hartlepool, where it has worsened from seventh most deprived in England to third most deprived, and Middlesbrough, where it remains the same – worst of all 296 districts. Even in the Boro the proportion of neighbourhoods in the 10% most deprived nationally has fallen from 50% to 46%.
A new dawn
Chris Cooke, elected Mayor of Middlesbrough, said: “Middlesbrough’s problems are multi-generational and have their roots in the town’s rapid industrial rise, followed by a decline that was almost as steep and one which was exacerbated by national policies which clearly disadvantaged towns and whole regions like ours.
“However, I believe we are witnessing the start of a new dawn for our town, driven by the rapid growth of our digital sector, and other industries across Teesside. It is the job of the council and the [Tees Valley] Combined Authority to make sure it is our residents and the next generation of Teessiders that benefit…
“I believe it is the duty of government at all levels to tackle this issue, and we’re not shying away from our duty as a council. The damage caused by decades of underfunding and neglect is deep and long-lasting, and while much has been done over many decades in an effort to redress the balance, it is clearer than ever that meaningful change can only be brought about if resources are directed at a national and regional level to where they are needed most…
“We will continue to fight for Middlesbrough to get its fair share and work with partners locally, regionally and nationally to improve life chances for every resident in every ward.”
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