Deprivation Town Again
HUGH SULLIVAN
One neighbourhood of Hastings – East Baird, centred around Malvern Way – was identified in a government survey released last week as being amongst the ten “most deprived” in England. Another – central Tressell, around Halton Crescent and Farley Bank – came close behind.
The Bridge Centre – lost to the local community for the last seven years
The Index of Multiple Deprivation compiled by the MHCLG (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) defines deprivation as referring to “people’s unmet needs, a lack of access to opportunities and resources which we might expect in our society.”
Such deprivation is recorded by the Index as widespread, with 65% of local authorities in England sharing in at least one “deprived” neighbourhood. Most towns and cities include residential areas that can be described in popular parlance as ‘the wrong side of the tracks’. But over a third of Hastings’ neighbourhoods (18 out of 53) are categorised as among England’s 10% most deprived. The borough as a whole is ranked 14th most deprived local authority in the country, on a rough par with impoverished northern towns such as Blackpool, Middlesbrough and Hartlepool.
These grim statistics catapulted the town into national headlines last week. The BBC ran an article on the Culture page of its news website, picturing a golden sunset behind Hastings Pier and headlining it: “What is life really like in one of England’s most deprived towns?”
The reporters quoted Barry Ashley, who runs the not-for-profit Grumpy Cook café in the town centre, as praising the “fantastic” community: “There are loads of great things going on in our town.” However, he also pointed to the number of boarded-up shops and said that he regularly sees children hungry and without proper clothing.
A spokesperson for Hastings Borough Council told the BBC that the town is “a great place to live, work and visit” and that it has received “significant investment” from central and local government.
Other local interviewees expressed some surprise at the news of their supposed deprivation. “The data does not reflect the reality on the ground,” one insisted.
The Index gives weighting to a number of elements of deprivation. Low employment levels, poor health, poor education and low income are all prevalent. It may be reasonable to suppose that these elements reinforce each other in most cases. But chief negative in Hastings, according to the Index, is “Barriers to accessing services, especially housing”. In fact more than two thirds (37 out of 53) of Hastings neighbourhoods are identified as suffering in the top 10% of this category.
From a historical perspective, it’s ironic that local housing is now scarce or unaffordable. In the latter years of the twentieth century, the town was characterised by its cheap rental accommodation. Like a number of other seaside resorts, following the exodus of traditional holidaymakers, it became a dumping ground for the socially and economically marginalised: people with long term mental illness, alcoholism, drug addiction, learning disability. London boroughs in particular found it cheaper to relocate problem tenants and their families here. A high proportion of such incomers were incapable of employment. That legacy is still playing out, though clearly diluted in the more affluent areas of the town by the steady influx of wealthier retirees and professionals from London or elsewhere.
A VIEW FROM TRESSELL
Briony (not her real name), a self-employed mother living in Tressell, agrees that there has been a history of social problems in the area but thinks that the main barrier to progress is an ingrained lack of expectation. “If you keep telling people they’re deprived and can’t do anything about it, they won’t. There’s a certain wallowing in the status of deprivation.”
Community action is important, though, and she contrasts the substantial recent investment in the refurbishment of Broomgrove Community Centre in East Baird (financed by the government’s Shared Prosperity Fund) with the current abandonment of the Bridge Centre in Tressell. “That was a very well-used facility which we’ve lost.”
Size of families is another factor, exacerbated by the government’s two-child benefit cap. Briony points out that there are many families in Tressell with three or more children – one neighbour has seven, another ten. How could they prosper without more financial support?
COUNCIL RESPONSE
A spokesperson for Hastings Borough Council commented both on the investment in Broomgrove, now being extended to the whole of North-east Hastings, and to the receipt of £21.5m government grant for Pride in Place funding programmes (formerly Plan for Neighbourhoods). “This funding has been used to support the delivery of investment and improvement in community services, such as regeneration, education, health, and employment, which gives us a real chance to make a difference in our communities. The Hastings Neighbourhood Board are committed to listening to ideas from the whole town. It has held several in-person sessions in neighbourhoods that often do not connect with consultations, to ensure everyone’s ideas and views are heard.”
The spokesperson also maintained that the town centre is about to be “revitalised” through the previously programmed Town Deal investments in Public Realm and Green Connections and in Hastings Castle. “These projects aim to make the town centre a welcoming place, boosting visitor numbers, increasing spend, and attracting new investment, all of which are vital both for ensuring decent well-paid jobs and increased health and wellbeing, as well as economic prosperity.”
As to housing, the council’s housing acquisitions programme “is making a real difference to residents’ lives.”
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