Deprivation in Suffolk Coastal - "barriers to housing and services", and "living environment"
The Department for Communities and Local Government produces the "English Indices of Deprivation", in which all of England is divided into small areas of around 1500 people, and these areas are compared to consider how deprived they are in relation to each other. The "index of multiple deprivation" (IMD) represents each area's relative performance - it is a comparative figure, measuring the area against other areas, and is not an absolute score.
The IMD takes into account seven different factor domains, which each contribute a set proportion to the overall figure, as follows:
- income deprivation (22.5%)
- employment deprivation (22.5%)
- education, skills and training deprivation (13.5%)
- health deprivation and disability (13.5%)
- barriers to housing and services (9.3%)
- crime (9.3%)
- living environment (9.3%).
An IMD score of 10 indicates that the area is in the tenth decile; that is, the area is among the least deprived, in the top 10% of results. At the other end of scale, an IMD score of 1 indicates that the area is in the first decile, in the bottom 10% of the results, and among the most deprived.
In general, when considering the IMD as a whole and therefore taking into account all of the domains listed above and the weightings applied to them, Suffolk Coastal scores fairly well in the report published in September 2015. Two-thirds of the 73 areas in Suffolk Coastal are assessed between the sixth and tenth deciles (that is, above average), and the majority of the remainder are in the fifth decile.
However, the results for the individual factor domains tell a slightly different story, with striking spikes of deprivation in two particular aspects:
- 12 areas scored 1 in the domain of "barriers to housing and services". This means that 16.4% of areas in Suffolk Coastal rank in the bottom 10% in the country, among the most deprived in respect of this factor. Barriers to housing and services covers the physical and financial accessibility of housing and local services. It includes geographical aspects (the road distance to GP, supermarket or convenience store, post office and primary school), as well as housing affordability, overcrowding, and homelessness.
- 11 areas scored 1 in the domain of "living environment". So 15% of areas in Suffolk Coastal have living environments which rank among the most deprived 10%. Living environment covers the quality of the local environment, both indoor (condition of housing, and lack of central heating) and outdoor (air quality and the incidence of road traffic accidents).
These findings suggest that the nationwide housing crisis may be causing problems in Suffolk Coastal as well, possibly exacerbated by the distances involved in accessing services in an area that Defra defines as "largely rural".