The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has published the English Indices of Deprivation 2025, confirming that the neighbourhood to the east of Jaywick & St Osyth in Tendring (Tendring 018A) remains the most deprived in England. The release shows 65% of local authority districts now contain at least one neighbourhood in the most deprived decile. Seven Blackpool neighbourhoods are among the 10 worst‑ranked nationally, alongside one in Hastings and one in Rotherham.
Only two neighbourhoods are ranked in the most deprived 10% across all seven domains: the Jaywick & St Osyth area in Tendring and Margate Town in Thanet. Across the 3,375 most deprived neighbourhoods, 226 are highly deprived on six or more domains, with these clusters concentrated in 10 districts including Liverpool, Blackpool, North East Lincolnshire and Middlesbrough.
The 2025 indices cover 33,755 Lower‑layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) using 2021 Census geographies. The Index of Multiple Deprivation combines seven domains weighted as follows: income 22.5%, employment 22.5%, education 13.5%, health 13.5%, crime 9.3%, barriers to housing and services 9.3%, and living environment 9.3%. MHCLG cautions that updates to indicators and geographies mean the 2025 results are less directly comparable with 2019; even so, 82% of bottom‑decile neighbourhoods in 2025 were also bottom‑decile in 2019.
On authority‑level summary measures, Middlesbrough, Birmingham, Hartlepool, Kingston upon Hull and Manchester record the highest proportions of neighbourhoods among the most deprived nationally. For income‑related deprivation among children, Tower Hamlets and Hackney rank highest; alongside Newham, Islington and Southwark they also rank highest for income deprivation affecting older people.
Accompanying datasets are provided for Integrated Care Boards, Local Resilience Forums and Built‑up Areas, reflecting how the indices inform planning beyond council boundaries. MHCLG’s research report notes that the indices are routinely used to target resources, support bids and evidence service need-while emphasising they identify places, not individuals.
Funding design is already aligning to deprivation evidence. The government’s Pride in Place programme-up to £5bn over 10 years-targets neighbourhoods with high deprivation and weak social infrastructure. Phase‑two selections in England used the 2019 IMD translated to 2021 LSOAs, combined with the Community Needs Index, and applied constituency‑level caps to ensure spread.
For Jaywick, the local response is long‑term. Tendring District Council adopted a 20‑year Jaywick Sands Place Plan in September 2024, costed at £126m-most of it for flood defences-while seeking external investment alongside quick‑win improvements. In August 2024 the Environment Agency completed the £12m Cockett Wick seawall scheme, improving coastal resilience for around 3,000 homes and businesses.
Ministers have highlighted parallel social investments. Recent commitments include the expansion of free school meals to all children in households on Universal Credit from September 2026, the £500m Better Futures Fund for vulnerable children over 10 years, and a £1bn package to reform crisis support. These interventions will sit alongside place‑based programmes that draw on the new indices.
For practitioners, the indices are best treated as a reset rather than a strict time‑series. Movements in rank should be read as relative shifts influenced by methodology changes. MHCLG advises users to rely on the 2025 technical and research guidance when interpreting change and to use the Local Deprivation Explorer for ward‑level narratives and postcode queries.
Jaywick sits within the Clacton parliamentary constituency, represented since July 2024 by Nigel Farage MP, but the indices are not a verdict on any single elected representative. They are a statistical tool to direct attention, funding and service design to places facing the greatest barriers. The test now is how quickly departments and councils convert today’s data into delivery.