Tower Hamlets STILL 3rd most ‘deprived’ borough

Tower Hamlets remains the 3rd most deprived local authority according to the latest 2015 index of deprivation figures. Tower Hamlets is the most deprived district with regard to income deprivation among both children and older people.

Deprivation is measured across seven different areas or domains – income, employment, health, education, living environment, crime and barriers to services using a wide range of indicators, and the methods used show how each area compares with other areas across England using a combination of all these indicators. Tower Hamlets is each ranked in the 20 most deprived local authorities on three of five measures.

Chart 8 below presents how the most deprived local authorities have changed rank on the Index of Multiple Deprivation since the previous update based on the extent measure. This chart tells a somewhat different story.

On this measure, six London boroughs rank among the most deprived 10 per cent of local authorities according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2015. Notably, Tower Hamlets remains among the three most deprived local authorities on this measure, and the outer east London borough of Barking and Dagenham has become relatively more deprived, moving from 20th to 9th most deprived since the 2010 Index.

Any change in rank position represents relative change only. It is possible that a district may have become less deprived in real terms since the previous Index, but more deprived relative to all other districts, or vice versa. Furthermore, a change in rank, even of several places, may not represent a large increase or decrease in the levels of deprivation.

The data from the 2015 figures is could be a little dated, it was collected between 2011 and 2013, which was the period when London was experiencing the Olympics factor at its peak.

Unemployment figures during the same period continued to confirm that Newham has the third highest level of unemployment after Barking and Dagenham and Tower Hamlets – despite all the investment of resources and time by successive governments and councils to reduce unemployment rates.

Almost one in four children (39 per cent) in Tower Hamlets is living in an income-deprived family. Furthermore, over half of all neighbourhoods in Tower Hamlets (54 per cent) rank in the 10 per cent most deprived nationally on this index.

Read the report here and more here.