‘Left behind’ neighbourhoods

We commissioned OCSI in 2018 to assess levels of social infrastructure in all the wards in England. They looked at whether areas lacked three characteristics to create a Community Needs Index:

• Places to meet: Community, civic, educational and cultural assets in or in close proximity to the area
• An active and engaged community: Community and civic participation
• Connectedness: Connectivity to key services, digital infrastructure and a strong local jobs market

This Index is the first of its kind; it maps community need at a hyper-local level in a way that has not been done before. As such it is a powerful tool for analysing and understanding spatial inequalities at the neighbourhood level, and enabling comparisons between neighbourhoods.

OCSI overlaid the Community Needs Index with the Index of Multiple Deprivation to find those communities that suffer from the highest levels of combined social, cultural and economic deprivation. The wards that rank in the top 10 per cent most deprived on both indices, are perhaps the most ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods in England. This analysis provided the first quantitative definition of what constitutes a ‘left behind’ area.

In 2022 we started to review and update the Community Needs Index, launching a consultation and engaging experts. The overarching aim was to refine the model, making use of the most up to date data and robust research approaches. The updated methodology which has now been published, will be used to provide further insights into the challenges and experiences of high needs communities.

We are not yet proposing to combine the 2023 Community Needs Index with the Index of Multiple Deprivation to produce a new list of ‘left behind’ or ‘at risk’ areas. As a second phase review of our approach to the research we are exploring how best to do this.

We do not use ‘left behind’ to imply that the areas so described lack people with skills and commitment or a rich heritage. We know from our experience of the Big Local programme that the reverse is generally the case. However, such areas have tended not to receive their fair share of available investment and they therefore lack the services and facilities that many of us take for granted. It is these services and facilities that help to connect people in a community and bind them together, providing the opportunity for residents to develop and prosper. It is in this sense that they are ‘left behind’.

Local Trust was the secretariat of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods, which was active between June 2020 and March 2024.

It was a cross party group of MPs and Members of the House of Lords, committed to improving social and economic outcomes for residents in communities that suffer from a combination of economic deprivation, poor connectivity, low levels of community engagement and a lack of community spaces and places.

‘Left behind’ neighbourhoods are largely concentrated in housing estates on the edges of our post-industrial towns and cities and in coastal areas, particularly in the North and Midlands, although there are areas to be found in pockets of deprivation along the South coast. The North East has 54 ‘left behind’ wards, whilst the North West has 56.  The East Midlands has 17 wards and the West Midlands 31 whilst Yorkshire and the Humber has 28 wards. Meanwhile there are 16 wards across the South East, predominantly located along the coast.

There are very few ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods in London and other city centres. This is due to the proliferation of social infrastructure in these places, meaning that whilst they have significant problems with deprivation, they have low community need as defined by our Community Needs Index.